Love For The Country... !!

Jai Sai Master!

There are two great days every year, that brings out emotional bonding with the country we live in. Aptly placed, one in the beginning of the year and one in mid year. It also feels great, to shout "Jai Hind" with all energy which reverberates for sometime. Particularly when you see OUR flag flying high, in all street corners.

On these two days, January 26th and August 15th, we own the flag with all the love even atleast for few minutes and salute it. 

It is indeed a great feeling!

When one thinks back, how a small thing like a flag can unite us, just look at it. This brings in the word, OUR country flag in the mind and tells us how great we are or our history is. The struggles we went through and rich past we have. Though we got freedom from British only in 1947, this country has rich past which not many current generation does not know of. Probably because the facts are not available or they are not easily accessible. It was quite well known that our history was re-written during british period for the want of erasing few emotional issues or to disconnect us from our past which was studded with great people and culture. In the world, we are placed very unique due to our strong spiritual backbone, for which we have to be ever thankful to our past generations. 

Their formula was a simple one. Let us be together. Let us share our joy and grief and work together for betterment of society. This is precisely what the new age culture, Permaculture says, Share the surplus. Economic differences might remain, but that should not deter us from caring for others or sharing with others. As our great poet Gurajada said, country is not soil, but it is people. So, when we shout Jai Hind or when we salute the flag, that should remind us these words and must motivate us to work for the poor and oppressed. There should not be dearth of clean air or water, fresh food or a large heart. 

As they sing while marching during parade, Kadam Kadam badhaye ja...", we must walk shoulder to shoulder on the path of prosperity, as we are endowed with rich resources.

It is high time that we bring in the connect with our current generation and tell them about our rich past to enable them to work to bring back the Golden Period for our country.

Let us salute the great heroes who gave us the freedom, which is a costly one, earned with lots of hard work. In many places it is not easy to think freely, work freely and move freely without any bondage. So, let us remain humble and always look up to those who worked to free us from bondage and oppression.

Jai Hind!

Wisdom from Mother - Sharing to reduce the burden !

Jai Sai Master!

In today's world, food, health and energy are given top priority by all nations as they understand the demands of growing populations. Land is becoming scarce and resources need to be divided between many. However, one solution does not fit all, as every child of mother is different. Different nations need different solutions though the final objective could be the same. In all these nations, one of the burning issues which is being swept under the carpet without giving too much attention across is - waste. A word, which does not have place in a mother's lexicon, is becoming a major issue and infact, this very thing is impacting all the three mentioned above. 

Nature is quite interlinked and any deviation will be dealt with severly. There are no short-cuts for bringing it back and only long winding solutions. That too, if there is no further deviation. However, in today's world, the deviations are becoming many and also highly interlinked. Thus, the solutions being provided are becoming less and less effective. 

There is no such thing called waste in general. What is not required for one may be useful for someone else. But finding that someone is what is causing the unused items to get piled up and interaction with natural elements is leading to pollution. Be interaction of unused items with soil, water or air. That is the reason why there is no single solution which can help all across and only micro solutions help the macro picture. Micro solutions could be lead by the local people who are driven by the need to minimize the impact of pollution on food or health which directly impacts them. 

One of the few solutions can be obtained by a simple thing called "sharing", which was in vogue in small towns and villages couple of decades back. Even today, though the need exists, the chain to connect the needy places is what is missing causing the unwanted material piling up in many places, which is leading a big problem. We must establish the chain back in our own backyard, be a rag picker chain to collect and recyle valueable material, creating small compost pits to generate fertiliser for our urban gardens, growing vegetables in our balconies to cosume the compost, not buying unnecessarily or buying only after disposing off or after deciding to dispose off excess. If every house hold does these things diligently, the results will be multi-pronged, achieving so called "waste", downward slide of vegetables, less and less dependence on doctors to mend our deviated health. We do not need oats or noodles (which will generate some plastic and impact our health due to adulteration sometimes), but can happily munch on greens growing in our own balconies. 

There is only one way to go forward - holistic approach to life. It is simpler and puts less pressure on how we are living. It can have a positive effect on the way we are looking at our jobs too. We need not be afraid of meeting our needs. 

No big words, but small actions. Let us look at possibilities of living more holistically to achieve sustenance. 

May you all become real children and may you all give back to your MOTHER, a hope of seeing better future.

Jai Sai Master!!!

What are we ignoring while educating our children?

Jai Sai Master!

Techno schools, IITs, NITs, IIMs or any other- aim of any of these or intent of any of these is to help in becoming a HUMAN, by understanding of various facets of life, imbibing values and ensuring knowledge transfer happens seamlessly from generation to generation. 

However, today, one look at our education system will a rude shock to anyone who is looking at few years hence. With more specializations, lack of time in understanding the concepts, focusing only on materialistic gains which carry short term, prone to health issues etc.. More stress is on the external rather than internal. It is not difficult to understand how cruel certain methods could be, for any parent. However, they become mute spectators infront of the only thought that flashes in their mind - KIDS BRIGHT FUTURE. However, no parent can say today that their kids are better off than themselves when it comes to feeling contentment or satisfaction that they escaped all these modern "troubles". Science has progressed a lot bringing with it changes in the way we see or talk or eat or even sleep. But hardly they are used for betterment of life. Instead, humans are getting more and more frustrated with their lives and seeking more and more, with no focus. This is only helping bringing down the family structures which are the building blocks of a good society.

Amma...Mother...Thaaye...Nature--- different names for the same energy!

Jai Sai Master!

Everyday, from a new born to the grown-ups, we use one word so much - AMMA. Be in any language, be any form you call, this is one word that you feel close to. You feel so close that you share everything. The place given to this word, is second to none, which shows the importance the role is playing in everyone's lives.

Fortunately, in India, or eastern countries, the emotional bonding is spoken very high of and with west being pervaded with such influences, the taste of mother has been passed on to, mostly less emotional countries. For us, we do not know why we need to celebrate Mother's day, but go through the motions following some western culture. Because, we never felt separated from Mother, never felt the need not to be thankful to her explicitly every moment and every day. Mother is what we inter-twined our lives so much. Even in wife, many would like to see the mother and hence the dependency comes so much. Mother is love, mother is compassion and with mother, we get our comfort.

Bridge between two generations....!

Jai Sai Master!

Three generations earlier, when any story was told to children, it always ended up with the common sentence, "they lived happily ever after". However, today, there are neither stories nor such happy endings. What is the difference? Technology has gone up, speed has gone up, ability to search and find has gone up, every system has increased by many folds. Then where did those happy endings disappeared? Under all those technological developments. 

We are not happy or contended. Those who say, "I am happy now and living peacefully", is only ascertaining many a time during the day, otherwise, they are not going to function as normal people. We have more comforts, but those comforts have taken away our peace. Instead of being a bridge between the past generation and our next generation, we are trying to be destroyers of the relationships. Everyone thinks of "those good old days". Why not good times now? Where is the root cause? 

It is within us. We have no clue what we want and are being washed away in the technological tsunami. Every moment, we have something or other to think of, without which we will go crazy. Once a land of peace, a beacon for the spirituality, is being pulled down by those who do not understand the difference between the spirituality and blind beliefs under the guise of religion. We live so mechanically, in such ignorance, that we do not want to promote openness even within our families. There are no more homes, but just houses with lots of wishes. If our kid gets fever, we worry so much and rush them to a multi-speciality. Our older generations never did that. They never reacted, but acted very responsibly. They never took their kids to parties or exposed them to pubs or parties. The elders in the house protected them and imparted enough knowledge. Today, we shun it with various names. 

It is time to re-write our books to impart the right knowledge which need not be imported, but exists very much in India, the land known for its knowledge base which it exported to the world. Let us start looking at ourselves with confidence, let us look back at our own previous generations, love them and learn from them to pass on to the next generation, so that the knowledge lying dormant, comes up to light up the whole world. Let us re-focus and re-orient ourselves and be HUMANS.

Jai Sai Master!!

Is it possible to live as my grandparents lived now?

Jai Sai Master!

• My grand father was so healthy that he used to eat ghee every day. Today, if I eat ghee every day, I will get cholesterol  What a life!!
• My grandma used to cook for 40 to 50 people everyday. Today, I can't even cook for 4 of my family. What a life!!
• My kid has serious constipation issue. I never had all those and my mother had all those recipes for quick relief and sometimes permanent cure. We used to eat home made powder from spices for mouth ulcers. Today I am forced to take B-complex tablets because I do not know how to make it and when to eat it.
• Papaya, they say should not be taken all the time. But my father told me that it is one of the best fruits, and he used to feed us regularly. 
• Today, the fruits and greens we buy in the market, do not have any thing in them. My house in my village used to have all these in our back yard. Today, we do not have any place around my house to grow any of these. What a bad luck?
• I just can not get time in a day. My grandpa used to do so many things every day without complaining of knee pain or back pain. Probably because, the place we lived was small and not much of work pressure then. What a life?

I hope many of us will agree with atleast one of the above. If yes, then this place is for you. For those who are yearning to live a healthy life, whereever we are now, even on mars, we can turn it around with little effort. What we need is - Zeal to learn and go back to our roots for solutions which are not connected to money or economics, but pure love and care. Let us start our journey on various topics touching protecting health to growing vegetables in our own window sill to making simple home made medicines from our kitchen cabinet. 

Let us touch the hearts of our grandparents and grandest parents and most of all, our AMMA, for those simple recipes. 

Jai Sai Master!!