Dhanteras

               
                                     Dhanteras

In many parts of India, Dipavali, a festival of lights , in fact begins on the thirteenth day (trayodashi ) of the dark fortnight ( krishnapaksha) in the month of Karttika and with the addition of Shuklapaksha dvitiya ( second day of  white fortnight ), it is spread over five days. The festival normally falls during the last part of October and early part of November. The first day that is the thirteenth day is called Dhanteras, the fourteenth day ( chaturdashi) is called Narakacaturdashi, small Diwali or choti Diwali, then the next day amavasya or the new-moon day is the Dipavali devoted to the worship of Lakshmi and Kubera, then the following day Karttika shukla pratipada, the first day of bright fortnight is known by the name Balipratipada, devoted to the worship of Bali who was pushed into the netherworld by Lord Vishnu as the incarnation of Vamana. It is also known as Govardhan puja as cattle are worshiped on this day. On this day , the artisans, workers worship the divine architect Vishvakarma , who is credited with the creation of fabulous weapons and palaces of gods. So this day is popular as Vishvakarma day.Next day, the Karttika Shukla dvitiya , known as Yama dvitiya is celebrated Bhaiyaduj According to an ancient legend, yama, the god of death and the river goddess Yamuna, were brother and sister. On this day of Karttika Shukla dvitiya, goddess Yamuna is said to have invited her brother Yama to her house for dinner and honoured him. Hence, this day has become a day of reunion of brothers and sisters. Sometimes, the sisters worship god Yama and pray to him for the longevity of their brothers. people living on the banks of the Yamuna river take bath in the river on this day.
Most of the festivals carry a significance of their own. Facts of Nature and Science are embedded in the form of anecdotes and myths associated with them and these myths account for the perpetuity of celebration of the festivals from time immemorial.Dipavali is celebrated after the rainy season. After the rains, there is outbreak of diseases due to the growth and spread of germs, moths etc. That is why cleaning, whitewashing the house, lighting lamps,bursting crackers are done to get rid of them in a natural manner.Thus attention is paid to maintaining health.
dhanteras is composed of two words, dhan meaning wealth and prosperity and teras referring to the thirteenth day ( of the month of Karttika). This day is an auspicious one to buy utensils, jewellery. a new vessel is purchased and put it at the place of worship, to be used later during the Divali days . Keeping the whole house clean and polishing of all the vessels is another feature noticed on this day. Now a days people invest and buy consumer goods. Not only idols of Lakshmi and Ganesha of varying designs, sizes and shapes, but also utensils, silver coins, gold coins, jewellery and other decorative items, electronic goods, vehicles are in high demand on the occasion of Dhanteras.

People worship Dhan Kuber, the god of wealth and prosperity,on this day and light a lamp in the night to offer prayers to him for his blessings for prosperity, well-being and protection. People light lamps at the doorstep of their houses to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth on this day. A lamp is lighted in honour of Yama, the god of death. Dhanvantari, the divine doctor is also worshipped on this day.

Stories connected with this festival-
Once Yama, the god of death asked his messengers whether they felt unhappy over taking the lives of people on the earth. They replied " Your Highness ! our work is very hard and cruel. When we take any life from the young ones untimely , we are moved by the pitiable cries of the beloved people around there and we feel helpless. Once we had to take the life of a young prince on the fourth day of his marriage. Hearing the heart-rendering cries and seeing the pitiable condition of the new bride, we felt disgusted with our work. So, please suggest a means by which the untimely death can be avoided."
At this, Yama, the Lord of death said, " Whoever lights a lamp in my honour on Dhanteras day, he will never face untimely death."
A slight variation of the same story is also given in scriptures according to which there was an astrological prediction that the son of king Hima would die on the fourth day of his marriage. After the marriage was over,the young bride of the prince put all the coins of gold and silver and her jewellery on the doors and windows of her bed-room. At the same time she lit the entire palace with lamps everywhere. When the god of death came there in the form of a serpent to take away the life of the prince, it was blinded by the light of sparkling coins, jewellery and lamps and went away as the appointed time was over.Thus a wife's presence of mind and intelligence saved her husband's life. That day became Dhanteras and got associated with the worship of Yama. On Dhanteras day, a lamp lighted on a cup full of rice is kept facing the south at the door step of the house in the evening in honour of Yama.
This day is also celebrated as the birth festival of Dhanvantari. the physician of gods, the first physician in creation, an incarnation of Vishnu, the founder-preceptor of Ayurveda. Since he brought the amrtakalasha or the pot of ambrosia out of the milky ocean, by drinking which, gods became immortal.It is also believed that that he brought a pot of elixir meaning full of medcinal herbs for the cure of the diseases of the world on this day. So doctors of Ayurveda celebrate this day by worshiping the image of Dhanvantari and distributing prasad, praying for the welfare and long and healthy life of all people.

The sequence of the festivals is significant and scientific. The first day is devoted to the worship of Yama, Dhanvantari and Kubera. It is symbolic also.
After the rains, precautions are taken to get rid of diseases caused by the spread of germs to avoid untimely suffering of the human body and prayers to Dhanvantari for a healthy long life. Prayers are the easiest means to uplift the human mind. The man begins to experience peace and happiness. Then he is inspired to strive for prosperity, so the grace of Kubera is also needed.
When the body is strong and healthy and mind is peaceful and happy, there is a tendency to celebrate and enjoy festivals. On the day of Dipavali, Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and Ganesha, the remover of obstacles and bestower of wisdom, are worshiped.
When the body is healthy and mind is peaceful, one can make effort to achieve prosperity.
It is also said that sound health is the basis and means for achievement of good deeds, prosperity, enjoyment or fulfillment of desires and also for self-realization.
Lakshmi is supposed to be fickle. Ganesha stands for wisdom. It is figurative. If wealth stays permanently in one place, there is no need for effort on the part of the man. There is movement, effort and faith in the destiny because Lakshmi is chanchala, fickle.The scriptures state that she stays only in a clean house, body and mind. Stability of wealth depends on earning and preserving by wise means only.
After Dipavali, the cattle, the real wealth of an agricultural country and tools and machinery,the main means of livelihood of people are honoured to inculcate their value in prosperity of the nation. Once prosperity is achieved, there is a natural flow of love which is manifested in the natural bond of love between brother-sister relationship on the last day, bhaiyadooj festival.

Wisdom drops

     
                         Wisdom drops

• We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,can transform the world.
• If we do any action, that is not geared towards a goal, we are wasting time.
• The art of living is just the balance between work, achievement and play.
• Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
• Do what you love. Love what you do.
• Work is love made visible.
• to begin anything, it is not word or thought or power that matters. It is the act that matters.
• More important than the will to win is the will to prepare.
• It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
• Demonstrate rather than impose discipline.
• Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
• The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be oneself

The power of the words

                                 The power of words



  A man is judged by his words. A man's word is his bond. The entire world moves on because of  the mutual faith in utterance of words. Words from the heart reach the heart, words from the mouth reach the ears. Words have inherent immense power to heal or wound.
The beauty is that a word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.
It is believed and proved that positive thoughts from not only from oneself but also from others have healing powers. That is why the prayer, which is nothing but a group of words expressing noble thoughts in a touching manner, is considered a very effective healer.
A saint used to cure diseases ,even incurable with his kind prayers. Once a child fell ill and did not respond to medical treatment. He was taken to the saint. There was a huge crowd gathered around to witness the miracle. One of the men asked the saint,
" when all medicines have failed, will your prayer help ?'
The saint replied, " Yes. but you don't know anything."
Hearing the words of the saint, the man became red with anger. He was about to burst into action. Then the saint came near him and putting his hand on his shoulders said with a smile,
" If one word of mine has the power to make you so much angry and burst into action, can't my another kind word be equally  powerful enough to make you cool down and heal?'

Self-effort - the royal road to success

                            Self-effort- the royal road to success




It is a belief handed over from archaic times that the planets and stars above,influence the events of man and others on the earth.
To know future is a natural curiosity of man.
The ancient sages had discovered the truths of predictive astrology through their meditations and penances and intuition . They were also in close association with nature. They minutely observed the phenomena of nature deeply and could predict the cases of earthquakes, famine and political changes because of their spiritual inclination and powers. They could also predict events in an individual's life and find good  and bad times for undertaking specific works and good and bad time and direction for travel. In ancient times astrologers were held in high esteem as they combined both a scientific bent of mind and a spiritual outlook on life as well as they themselves led a pure life of high moral standard. They preached their lore not for amassing wealth, but for giving guidance to the needy and distressed. Their aim was to remove the cause of sufferings of the people and to turn their mind towards righteousness and God. Hence a reverential attitude was towards them. It is the conviction of great sages and saints that by self-effort combined with sincere devotion to God and faith in oneself, man can rise above the influence of his environments .Astrology aided in creating positive thoughts in the mind to overcome the obstacles and work towards the goal.
Gradually some unscrupulous practices were crept into this divine science because of the malpractices of the practitioners. The famous astronomer cum astrologer Varahamihira too condemns a bad astrologer as a sinner who defiles a society. However, he plays extraordinary compliments to a worthy astrologer, who, in his view should know practically all branches of knowledge under the Sun and be a guide, philosopher and teacher to the society.
Kautilya also denounced the use of astrology in ordinary life except by the kings in the interests of the kingdom and the subjects.
Astronomy is the basis for astrology. The position of stars and planets were taken into consideration
for fixing the proper auspicious time for performance of sacrifices in those days. In fact, astrology started as a vedanga, an auxiliary of the Vedas. Later on its application  was extended to human life.
Astrology is laudable in essential things for finding out auspicious time for big events like marriage,thread-ceremony ( Upanayanam ) and others. It was used in match-making ( selecting suitable bride and bridegroom) for marriages. This was introduced more or less to bring a disciplinary order in society. But the ultimate dictum of astrology is " Where and when the mind is happy, that is the good time for starting any work ." In case of marriage also, the compatibility of minds is emphasized than anything else.
Bhaskaracharya, the famous astronomer-astrologer knew from his daughter's horoscope that his dear only daughter would face widowhead. By changing the auspicious time of her marriage ( generally fixed in consideration with horoscopes of both the boy and the girl) to one such a is time which assured her eternal prosperity with a happily married life with husband and children, the extraordinary scholar- father wanted to avert his daughter's fate of widowhood.
He set a water clock in such a manner that water dripping would stop at the assured good time indicating the time of marriage. His little daughter Lilavati unaware of the facts, looked into the waterclock out of curiosity and a pearl from her necklace fell into the beaker and accelerated the dripping of water to the earlier fixed time. Even Bhaskara with his knowledge and power could not avoid the fate of his daughter. He taught her mathematics and wrote a treatise Lilavati to immortalize her name. So we may not be able to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
To depend on astrological predictions alone, ignoring personal effort is highly dangerous in daily life. In fact facing the situations without prior knowledge is more challenging to human mind. All our performances depend totally on our minds. The mind has unlimited reserves of energy. It has to be trained in the proper direction with faith in the ultimate truth, good company and good books. With positive thoughts thus developed man can never go wrong. Because one's inner conscience is the real guide, no other external prop is needed. Thus with positive thoughts and effort we can achieve a lot in life.
Man himself is the master of his destiny. It all depends on how much energy the mind has released. Every individual is self-made. But the quantum of success depends on one's planning. One should utilize one's mind and not other's help to achieve anything in life.

There was a king who depended on his royal astrologer for everything he did. The astrologer became very haughty because of this. The people of the country were very annoyed at this. but they did not know how to explain this to the king. Once the king was going along with the astrologer to a saint to solve some problem concerning the state. On the way they met a farmer who was going with his plough and buffalo to the fields. The astrologer stopped him, " why are you going in this direction now today ? Travelling in this direction is not considered good in the light of astrology and it will not ensure success in your undertaking. You will meet with failure. Go back."
The farmer replied, " Sir! my field lies in this direction only. I go to the field in the same direction all throughout the year. Because of this self effort I am able to lead a happy and peaceful life life. I never faced any failure. Grains grow well in my field. If I start listening to your advice for doing my work, I will die of hunger. My fields will become barren."
Concealing his embarrassment and displeasure, the astrologer said, " Show me your hand. I want to know and tell you what your fate line in the palm depicts."
The farmer replied politely," Thank you sir for your kindness. He only, who avoids work, one who does not have faith in his hands and effort, spread his hand before someone. I make my destiny by my own effort.Why should I show you my hand?" Saying thus, the farmer went away with his plough and buffaloes.
This opened the eyes of the king. The king said, " Astrologer sir ! Now I do not need your advice nor do I want to go to the saint for consultation." Saying thus, the king came back. Then onward, he  started making decisions using his wisdom and discrimination. The country became prosperous and the people were very happy.

There is a saying,
               ' Time and tide wait for none.'
One should  always be alert and look for opportunity and move ahead in life.

Words of wisdom

     
                                       Words of wisdom


  Knowledge is like a garden. If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.

 Learning is a treasure which accompanies its owner everywhere.

There are no national frontiers to learning.

When the heart is at ease, the body is healthy.

Opportunities come but do not linger.

You can always find good elements in the misfortune that strikes you.

The key that opens is also the key it locks.

Nothing wipes your tears but your own hand.

It is the pot that boils but the dish that gets the credit.

Custom and law are sisters.

As soon as your cart is turned over, every one rushes to give you advice.

The value of somethings is apparent only when they are gone.

Scatter with one hand, gather with two.

Abundance does n't know contentment, but contentment is abundance.

If you have planted a tree you must water it too.

In this world, the wise refer only three things as precious gems, namely; Tasty drinking water, good food and precepts( good sayings). But fools refer even to ordinary stones as precious gems.

If you are going a long way, go slowly.

Great things can best be said in silence.

A good deed is the best form of prayer.

Prosperity of a country

                                  Prosperity of a country

    The earth is not thirsty for the blood of the warriors but for the seat of man's labour.

Once a virtuous poetess visited a king and composed a poem praising him and his kingdom. She mentioned only two words.
" Let the dikes ( dykes, embankments, that is walls of mud to hold water among the crops in agricultural lands )  multiply ! "
The king could not grasp the meaning fully, asked her to explain.
She said, " If the dikes of fields are built more and high, the water level in the fields will also go up. With enough water, the paddy crop will grow tall and healthy. When they grow up like this, the yield of grains will be more. When the yield is high, people will have enough food and there will be peace. When they are healthy and peaceful, they will be happy and work hard, the country will be prosperous. This will glorify the king."
The king understood the truth that the prosperity of a kingdom and the glory of the king depended on the greening of the earth.

Amazing facts of Nature

 
                      Amazing facts of Nature

• Birds devote much time to their hygiene, preening their feathers continually and bathing regularly. Many birds spread their wings in the Sun ( to get rid of the germs and insects sticking to their feathers and also in this process, they get the boost of vitamin D by exposure to Sunlight ). Others prefer a good dust bath, smear themselves with an ant ointment ( by rolling on ant-hill or on a group of ants) or enjoy a beer massage. Birds need not look long or far to find the beauty oil they need for their hygiene. It is just a bill's length away, secreted by a gland on their rump. Birds dip their bills in this oily substance rich in fatty acids and water up to 10 or 12 times a day and spread it on their feathers.
• All spiders can make silk. They use it to make webs, traps, burrows and cocoons. Some spider silk is three times stronger than a steel wire of the same thickness. Spider silk can be thinner than a human hair and can stretch to twice its length. spiders make up to seven kinds of silk with their their glands in their abdomen. each kind of silk is used in a particular way, such as making traps, wrapping up prey, or providing shelter. Female spiders make a kind of silk to encase and protect their eggs. 5000 kinds of spiders build orb-shaped or circular webs. a common garden spider uses from 50 to 200 feet of silk to build an orb-shaped web about a foot across in less than an hour. An orb-web spider spins about 100 webs during its life time.Scientists today are using nanotechnology to try and make synthetic spider silk, because spider silk is super strong and stretchy.
• Indian female elephants do not have tusks.
• Animals like rats and squirrels keep gnawing at things because gnawing helps wear down their teeth. If they do not gnaw at things their teeth would keep on growing.
• Dogs eat grass when they feel something is wrong with them. After eating grass, whatever is eaten and has remained in the abdomen is thrown out. They feel better after this.
• Antarctica has more coal and iron ore are deposited beneath its ice than all the other continents combined.
• Newts ( aquatic animals ) sometimes migrate long distances to breed. They often travel back to the pond where they grew up, finding their way by sight and smell.
• Crocodiles shed tears. They secrete the excess salt in the body. They have to get rid of this by means of a gland near the corner of the eye.
• Certain plants use the sea to spread their seeds. The coconut is a famous example of this. This nut itself ripens inside an even larger husk of stringy fibres( the coir) encased in a brownish leathery skin.This makes it float and when a coastal coconut palm drops a husk almost straight into the ocean, it is carried away by the currents and deposited on a distant shore, where it may grow. In this way coconut palms have spread to fringe tropical shores around the world.
• If there is a population explosion of the microscopic pond plants algae, it can cause great harm to the other pond inhabitants by exhausting the available oxygen supplies. Without enough oxygen, the pond's plants and animals will soon die.