The Afghan

“The Afghan” was the book that kept my mind occupied. If you get a chance do read it. It actually has taken away a little of mental peace! The book talks about how the CIA tries to find a major terror plot. :)

Badrinath

Stories say that Lord Vishnu/ Narayana ousted Shiva & Parvati and occupied this place to do penance. Sri Lakshmi out of sheer love converted herself to Badari tree to protect and provide shade to Lord Vishnu from the nature’s fury.

Reaching Him today is much easier. It could have been possible only to saints like Sri Madhwa Acharya to reach there those days! They should have had mighty powers indeed!

I really wonder how they have constructed these roads with limited equipments. I remember my grandfather had traveled to Badri by road, some 30 years back! The people who work on these roads should be very close to the Lord. Everyone, who passes these roads can’t stop admiring and praising the efforts put by these people. Such is it!

A vaishnava’s dream to see Him and purify his soul. And He doesn’t disappoint! The way to reach Him from Rishikesh is a fulfilling experience! A feast to the eyes! Soothing to the heart! Enlightening to the mind! And a reconciliation to mortal body! The faith will be built in the form of love to an atheist. And to the believer every step in this direction means increase in his faith more than 1000 times.

Badri - you will fall in love with this place. “Swargakke moore genu” – three feet away from the heaven! I feel that you are already in the heaven! The temple is good. Shri Badari Narayan’s idol isn’t very big but his fame has no end! Murti chikkadaadaru keerti doddadu!

Surroundings

The mighty Himalayas don’t stop growing and the clouds after terrible fight, fail to stop their growth. Necks pain to continuously see their heights. Majestically they stand making us realize how small we are and how we should behave!

Alakananda accompanies you through-out. She’s in such a hurry to reach her destination that her speed can reel any one’s head especially when she’s flowing down from Himalayas!
She shows that a delicate, sensitive, fragile river can be strong, threatening, and strapping!
Sometimes she’s a feast to the eyes and sometimes a scare!
Suddenly she looks simple and at once she threatens you to the core with her speed!
She has the capability to withstand the strong wind and change its direction!
She is adorable but you can’t play with her!
She makes sure that you know to respect her and not take advantage of her!

After she joins Bhagirathi at Dev Prayag, she becomes Ganga, the mother of all sacred rivers, who purifies the mortal soul with a single touch! She tries to pacify the ferocious Alakananda not to be so.

Saraswati seen only at one place in Mana village, near Badari deafens one’s ear. Her speed, milk-like water, roaring speed threatens one’s existence! Her force of attraction is such that being at a distance you feel like you are pulled to her and in a millionth of second your existence would have ceased! She would have created havoc, if she had to flow over-ground with these characteristics. Guess that’s the reason she flows underground and reaches her destination!

Traveling to Badri? Read more details here and here.

One Cause of Stress

I am closely coming to a conclusion about urban stress. My take is that it is indeed lack of patience or having very little patience causing stress!

Agree with me?

Raksha Bhandan

Ah! One of the festivals I look forward to is today! Raksha Bhandhan – Festival for brothers and sisters. This time I had better satisfaction compared to the last one. I was able to meet many in person! Lovely day!

I feel that it’s not only me, but every sister longs for a brother who is naughty, loving, caring etc (all the good adjectives you can add to the list)! A perfect brother is actually meant not to be perfect! Oxymoron!

Happy Raksha Bhandan!

Education – Meaning and Usage

Education means:
- “activities that impart knowledge or skill”
- “education is a preparation for life”
- “the result of good upbringing (especially knowledge of correct social behavior)”

The word education is derived from the Latin - educare meaning “to raise”, “to bring up”, “to train”, “to rear” etc.

Today, education means adding more qualifications to ones’ CV. This is like specialist knowledge gained in a specific stream and actually not Education.

Education has kind of stopped grooming a human to prepare for the life, understand sensitivity, proper upbringing etc.

Adding higher qualifications to his/her CV, the more s/he values mental thinking, strategic thinking etc. And such thinking does not have place for - emotional thinking and sensitivity to others’ feelings, warmth etc challenging the essence of human life. We are educating to become more like machines in our thinking.

My observation is that – A person, who promotes such thinking, does have emotional thinking, sensitivity, warmth but that is only at his convenience.

This convenience is a multi-tiered one. Generally it surrounds first – himself/herself, then his immediate family and then a few close friends. Occasionally, warmth is shown for a stranger only when it is known that it’s going to benefit him/her in someway.

Where are we heading to? A land filled with “sel fishes”!