Business After Death- Shradh( a nonsense ceremony)

Among Hindus the Shradh ceremony has to be done when someone dies in the family. When a death happens in a Hindu family, obviously the event brings lot of grief in the family, but at the same time it becomes a great opportunity for the Bramhin purohits to mint money.

In the Shradh ceremony a purohit has to be invited who would perform various spiritual rituals, like peforming pooja and and reading mantras in Sanskrit  from some old books. In return he gets a hefty amount as dakshina(donation) along with other gifts.

In India there are around 9 million deaths per year. 80% of India follows Hinduism, hence each year 7.2 million Shradhs are performed across India. Even if a Purohit gets an average Rs 3000 per Shradh, that would mean that across the nation ,just by doing shradhs the purohits make around Rs 2,100 crore(Rs 2.1 billion) per year.

The reason given for doing this Shardh are also funny. The major reason given is that reading of this mantras in front of a fire would result in peace to the soul of the dead person and also if this ceremony is not performed then the soul of the dead won't find peace and then he/she may return as ghost and haunt others. Thousands of other absurd reasoning are given, one of them is - the family may have bad luck and they may be ruined.

In reality the priests are all upper caste Hindus. I have mentioned in my previous articles about the rigid caste system of India in the past. In earlier times even 120 years ago the Bramhins called the shots. Most of the nation was illiterate, as education was rigidly controlled by the Bramhins. Huge discrimination were made on the basis of caste. The Bramhins set the rules for the society to follow, if someone didn't follow the rules they made, harsh punishment was meted out to them.

All kinds of nonsense ceremonies were made for different occasions like marriages, thread ceremony, giving name to a child, shradh, starting a new business, harvesting crops etc. In each ceremony donation of money or gifts to the Bramhin priest was compulsory.

 Non performance of this ceremonies would have lead to ostracization of the family from the society. Ostracization is still followed in some rural parts of India, such families even won't be able to buy essential goods from the village shops. No one back then dared to go against the societal norms. Hence generations after generations such practices got embedded into the culture of the country.

Cut back to the present times. Today people have no fear of being persecuted or ostracized if they don't perform shradh. But still majority of the people perform this nonsense rituals even now. In Hinduism the body of the deceased person is burnt and the ashes are thrown in river.

Today we live in an era where science has made tremendous progress. In present times it is possible to use parts of the body of a dead person for better purposes. If they eyes are removed within a couple of hours of death of an individual, it is possible to transplant those eyes to two blind people. They would be able to see again.

Depending on the age and health of the person who died if other parts of they body like liver, heart, kidneys etc can be useful to other patients who may die without the transplant of any of these organs. So immediately after the death of a person if useful organs are removed , preserved and transplanted to the needy; it can bring happiness to the lives of lots of people. 

Even if the body is donated for medical research it would do more good than burying it or burning it up in fire. No such rituals are needed at all , shradh is just a stupid ancient practice that must end. It is nothing but a set of superstitions followed for thousands of years. 

About RamaKrishna Mission

********************About RamaKrishna Mission ***************

I like Swami Vivekananda and the direct disciples of RamaKrishna Mission who started the Institution. But subsequently like all other religious institutions even RKM seems to have gone down the dumps to a certain extent. I really do not like the present buch of monks who are but Modi Toadies, if Swami Vivekananda was alive he would have thrown most of them out of the mission. It is the first time in many years that I did not visit Belur Math in Durga Pooja, nor did I catch its live transmission on TV.

Fooling people in the name of religion

Durga Pooja is a huge festival in West Bengal state of India. The Bengalis celebrate this festival with great joy. It is based on a mythological story of Goddess Durga slaying the demon Mahisasura who defeated the Gods and acquired Heaven(Swarga).

Festivals based on this story are also celebrated in other parts of India, like Navartri in the state of Gujarat. While across the nation the 10th day of the festival is celebrated as Vijay Dashami or Dusherra, in which huge paper effigies of demon Ravana is burnt. This festivals symbolise the victory of good over evil.

This festival is very important for the economy of the state of West Bengal, people spend huge amount of money in buying products for this festival, especially clothes. Thousands of crores of rupees is spent across the different pandals across the state. It provides much needed earnings for the artists and pandalmakers.

This is a time when the idol makers make a good amount of money. The idols are normally made of clay. Although new variants are tried like idols made from plaster of paris ,fibreglass and even thermocol.

This is best time to see the creativity of the artists across the different pandals . Actually it has become the USP of this festival now. Each year pandal construction is getting more and more creative with newer concepts and themes being implemented.

Durga Pooja is an excellent time for people to use up the money that is unaccounted or black money. It is definitely an excellent way of money laundering as the organisers can simply show the money spent as bogus donations. However Durga Pooja is a festival that symbolises the victory of good over evil. I wonder if god indeed is concerned about this festival . Why should money laundering thrive during this time?

People are least concerned about the religious importance and the message of the festival, they simply want to have a good time. It is also a time when even brothels make great sum of money since lot of men visit that place. Why can't Devi Durga teach restraint to the people who worship them.

Now take Kumbh mela or the greatest so called spiritual gathering on earth. A big number of nude shameless sadhus visit the mela. People throng to the fair in millions. This year the authorities are concerned about the lack of availability of condoms.

The so called spiritual events are opportunities for common masses to indulge in all kinds of fun and that involves sex as well. Especially sex with prostitutes, in India most women who work as prostitutes have been forced into the profession. So buying a prostitutes services is like encouraging crime against women.

In recent times so many so called god men have been found, who were all the time fooling people , like Asaram Bapu of Gujrat(Modi's state). Our Prime Minster was a great follower of Asaram and so did Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar. 

Who knows the later two may have some similar art of living. Asaram and his son Narayan are involved in many sexual abuse and rape cases, both have been cooling their heels in jail for months now . Many of the key witnesses in their cases have been murdered. This is a clear indication of the fact both the father and son duo are guilty.

Whenever there is death in some Hindu home there is an obvious pall of gloom because of the loss of a loved one, but that becomes the opportunity for a pujari to make some quick bucks by repeating some words written in some old book, in a language(Sanskrit) that is not known to common people of the nation. No one gives a damn whether he is reading it properly or not. At the end of the Sradh ceremony he bags good amount of gifts and money for himself, along with some free food.

The family in which death has happened are by religion forced to celebrate the occasion and feed people. They excuse they give is that this procedure will lead to peace of the departed soul. Well, that's what some old books written with barks of trees have written in them.

Much better it would be to donate the body of the person who died to a Medical collage for research and at the same time donate the organs like eyes, liver, kidney which can give a new life to someone. If all people who die donate eyes then blindness in India will become history.

Caste System - How it destroyed India

In the Vedic period the caste of a person was based on his occupation. An individual had total freedom to chose an occupation of his choice; whether it be the study of the Vedas, or farming , soldier any occupation he chose his caste was dependent on that. However in time the cast system started becoming more and more rigid. The caste system became dependent on a person's birth and not his occupation. A Bramhan's son was a Bramhan and he had to pursue the study of religious scriptures , a warriors son has to become a warrior whether he like it or not.

So the first evil that the caste system of ancient did was to take away individual freedom. Secondly it created a feeling of superiority  among the people of higher class and a feeling of inferiority among the people of the the lower caste. The society was primarily divided into four castes 

1) Bramhin :- They undertook the study of Vedas and other religious texts and performed various rituals. 

2)Kshatriya : - This was the warrior and ruler caste, they were responsible for the protection of the people of the country.

3)Vashiya :- This was the caste of traders and businessmen.

4) Shudras :- This was the caste of people who did menial work like cleaning roads and other work that included farming. 

The people who didn't belong to the above four castes were considered to be out castes and were looked down upon. Later on rules became so strict that they were not even being touched. The lower castes were not even allowed to take the same side of road as the higher castes. They were not allowed to drink water from the same well as the people of higher castes and education was banned for them. The Bramhins made it their birth right to study the Vedas and other castes were prevented from the study of Vedas. 

If some person was born in a lower caste , he was told that his past life karma was responsible for his birth in the lower caste and he deserved to live a harsh life. Severe punishments were meted out to the people who broke the caste rules. 

The greatest person to dissent against it was the greatest person even born Buddha. Buddha spent years in meditation to find out the cause of human sorrow and after his enlightenment he travelled across the length and breadth of the country to teach the dhamma(religion). Hence Buddha became the founder of Buddhism and the Buddhist society was totally caste less society. The Buddhist religion was compassionate and treated everyone as equal. 

But later on the Buddhist teachers became too much on the negative side of lives, focused too much on sorrow. Which made people turn away from Buddhism and with Muslim invasion of India there was large scale destruction and massacre of Buddhists. The religion almost disappeared from the land and arrogant Brahmanism made a comeback. 

Again the rigid caste system came back but since mostrulers across the nations were Muslims, the lower castes had one option to change their religion to Islam. Changing their  religion to Islam meant that they would be treated with respect and have a good status in the society. So areas in the country where castism was maximum people changed over to Islam. This is particularly true about Bengal and Punjab. 

However many who stayed Hindu had to live a painful life. Untouchability and social discrimination was very high. During Muslim rule the education of women was stopped and people became highly conservative. The uneducated Indian now became easy targets of British who ruled over India for 190 years. 

After Independence lots of laws have been made against castism and cast based discrimination. Our Constitution treats all citizens as equal regardless of his/her caste, creed or religion. 

But still even today caste based discrimination does exist in the rural side of India. Particularly north India , caste based discrimination is high in the states of UP, Bihar, Gujrat Haryana,certain states of South India. However there is hardly any discrimination on the basis of caste in the states of West Bengal and the north eastern states. 

India must come out this ugly castism that weakened and destroyed the nation in the past. Caste must be made a thing of the past and should never come back to this country anymore. 

Fraud Spiritual Gurus and Superstitions

The Temple and Buddhist Viharas of India are very unique, in many south Indian temples one can find beautiful sculptures on the walls of the temples. In one of the South Indian temple there is image of a cat who is disguised as a monk performing yoga. Watching it a rat tries to imitate it and the next figure shows that the cat ended up eating the the rat. So we see that the problem of fake spiritual gurus existed in the past as well. 
The carvings on the temple wall was intended as a warning to the people to beware of fake monks.

For centuries India was mired in in blind beliefs and superstitions, the ugly caste system of the country resulted in the higher castes blocking education of the people belonging to the lower castes. The lower castes were so exasperated by the unfair behaviour of the people of higher caste that they began to change their religion during the Muslim rule many of them became Muslims particularly in the states of Bengal and Punjab where castism was at its worst.(Remember this was a time when the Sikh religion was not even born)

Even today you find fake spiritual gurus everywhere these days they are using technology to reach out to people. There are television channels dedicated for this purpose. Some of these fake spiritual gurus are billionaires get donations worth a few hundred crores each year. Their so called ashrams are more posh than a 7 star hotel. Many of them in recent times have been caught in sex scandals like the ones in Swaminarayan Temple in Gujarat and ofcourse infamous case of Asharam Bapu and his son Narayan Sai , where the father son duo had sex with hundreds of ashram inmates more than one at a time. 

This cheats and frauds are the greatest enemy of the nation who simply fool the people many of them uneducated in the name for religion. There is huge fraud business they are doing and they are also helped politically. 

They also cry to create wedge between different religions and try to generate violence and riots among people of different religions. One has to guard against these frauds . 

The original saints lived in frugal ashrams that were no more than huts. They did not touch money and lived on food given by the people. There are good and real spiritual gurus but they are far too few among every 10 spiritual gurus 9 are rank frauds and deserve to be behind bars. 

This are the ones who are responsible for spreading superstitions and blind beliefs in the minds of people. The more superstitious people are the more they will run towards these frauds for spiritual blessings. 

Beware of such fake gurus and be free from superstitions. 

Wrong Numbers

One of the worst event in history of free India were the Gujarat riots in which almost 3,000 innocent people were mercilessly murdered. It was preceded by Godhra train burning in which some RSS people were killed, a violent mob of a few dozen people torched the train.

In response to this the state government paraded the dead bodies of people on the streets of Ahmadabad and what followed would shame humanity. Mobs of hooligans went to Muslim localities and killed innocent people who had no part in the crime this included women and children.

Recalling a newspaper report from that time, I remember that a pregnant Muslim women was first raped by a mob then her stomach was slit and the fetus was taken out and thrown in fire and then ultimately the women was thrown in fire.

The state government was involved in this carnage. The police had instructions from the government that no action should be taken on the rioters. So the rioters simply had a free hand they killed, they raped , the looted without being obstructed at all.

This was definitely one of the most shameful events in the history of free India. The International media and world swung into action. The Gujarat chief minister was considered to be responsible for the riots and he was denied visa to the US for many years.

But Indians most of them are idiots, voted like idiots and in 2014, chose the same man as the Prime Minster of the nation thinking that it would usher in acche din(happy days ) but the reality turned out to be the other way round it is acche din but only for some crony corporates. The condition of people remains the same. In last one year India has been the worst performing market in the world.

The methodology of calculation of GDP growth rate changed to fool people into believing that the nation is growing faster but in reality the growth rate has slowed down. This man promised to bring back black money within 100 days , well hardly any action has happened in that front only lies of action being taken has been spread in the media.

Now add to that this man visits Belur Math where the monks knowing about his misdeeds of the past still open the room of Swami Vivekananda for him to show off that he is meditating. Surely the soul of Swamiji would have been hurt by such an act. Of course the modern day Ramakrishna Mission is nowhere like the ones who started it. The monk who is the president sits in an AC room and gets his darshan done by idiot devotees.

I personally had an encounter with a monk from RKM Australia who tried every trick in the book to convince me that Modi is working for the sake of the nation. When I gave him logical points that he is doing nothing at all and making only the crony corporates rich the monk gave up and said you have a lot to learn, someway he had to get away.

Really these days most of the monks are wrong numbers whose only interest is to get enough chanda to live a life of comfort. 

Swami Vivekananda and Buddha

Swami Vivekananda had great regards for Buddha. He claims that as a child he had a vision of Buddha while meditating in his room. In fact after the death of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa the favourite subject of study at the Baranogore Math was Buddhism.

In his speeches Swamiji has referred to Buddha multiple times specially during a lecture on the Ideal of Karmayoga . Here is the excerpt:

Let me tell you in conclusion a few words about one man who actually carried this teaching of Karma-Yoga into practice. That man is Buddha. He is the one man who ever carried this into perfect practice. All the prophets of the world,except Buddha, had external motives to move them to unselfish action. The prophets of the world, with this single exception, may be divided into two sets, one set holding that they are incarnations of God come down on earth, and the other holding that they are only messengers from God; and both draw their impetus for work from outside, expect reward from outside, however highly

spiritual may be the language they use. But Buddha is the only prophet who said, "I do not care to know your various theories about God. What is the use of discussing all the subtle doctrines about the soul? Do good and be good. And this will take you to freedom and to whatever truth there is." He was, in the

conduct of his life, absolutely without personal motives; and what man worked more than he? Show me in history one character who has soared so high above all. The whole human race has produced but one such character, such high philosophy, such wide sympathy. This great philosopher, preaching the highest philosophy, yet had the deepest sympathy for the lowest of animals, and never put forth any claims for himself. He is the ideal Karma-Yogi, acting entirely without motive, and the history of humanity shows him to have been the

greatest man ever born; beyond compare the greatest combination of heart and brain that ever existed, the greatest soul-power that has even been manifested. He is the first great reformer the world has seen. He was the first who dared to

say, ''Believe not because some old manuscripts are produced, believe not because it is your national belief, because you have been made to believe it from your childhood; but reason it all out, and after you have analysed it, then, if you find that it will do good to one and all, believe it, live up to it, and help others to live up to it." He works best who works without any motive, neither for money, nor for fame, nor for anything else; and when a man can do that, he will be a Buddha, and out of him will come the power to work in such a manner as will transform the world. This man represents the very highest ideal of Karma-Yoga.

On other occasions Swami Vivekananda has reffered to Buddha as the greatest man ever born. The fact that Buddha never preached god made no difference to him whatsoever.  

Meat and beef

Beef Beef Beef hain wonderful. Its tasty. I challange anyone to get beef banned in my home state of WB. Its a source of inexpensive protein and cattel owners primary source of income is not by milk but by the sale of beef . Cuz 50% of the cows born are male. These days you don't have any bullock carts so there is no use of bulls except their sperm to impregnate the cows. So bulls ultimately go under the knife for consumption as tasty food. Female cows produce new offspring and can give milk only upto a specific period of time after that they become useless and ultimately go under the knife. 

Now look if killing of cows for food is wrong then killing of any animal for food is wrong and remeber when you cook food you actually end up killing millions of micro-organisms. So no food on earth is vegetarian absolutely no food. 

It seems to me that the cow mother thing has been introduced into the Indian brains to get Hindus and Muslims fighting against each other. 

My master Swami Vivekananda once when asked what he thought was the most glorious period of Indian history he simply said the time when "5 Bramhins would polish off an entire cow".

I myself have practiced vegetarianism for 7 years and my experience says its practically and spiritually useless .

Meat is healthy and in India beef is probably the cheapest of all the meats. Its really a crime against humanity to ban the production and sale of meat. Having beef does not make any person bad , had that been the case 80% humanity would have been full of criminals but that's not the case. 

Just like animals have life so do plants have life. So what is wrong in having meat as food if you can have plants as food. 

Direct disciples of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa

The above photographs is of the direct disciples of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa.  The leader of the pack was of course Swami Vivekananda. The other disciples of Ramakrishna also contributed tremendously towards the building the Ramakrishna Mission and spreading the message of Ramakrishna - Vivekananda. 

Swami Vivekananeda and Rabindranath Tagore

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda were born about the same time , Tagore was born 2 years earlier. The two just lived at walking distance from each other's houses however there is no historical evidence about any interaction between Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda. Although it must be noted that Swamiji's father Biswanath Dutta was a personal friend of Devendranath Tagore , father of Rabindranath. 

Both Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda were giants in their respective fields. Swami Vivekananda and his guru Ramakrishna Paramhamsa were some of the greatest saints ever born who worked selflessly for the good of mankind. Swami Vivekananda's role is paramount in the rebuilding of India.

Rabindranath Tagore on the other hand influenced the culture of the country especially his native province Bengal in a big way. It must be noted that he got Nobel prize for the English translation of his work Geetanjali. The English translation is nowhere near the original Bengali songs and poems. Among poets and musicians Rabindranath Tagore was equivalent of  the element Carbon in chemistry. 

RabindraSangeet is a genre of songs written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore . They are so popular that even today they are sung both in original and remixed forms. There are people who spend years to specialize in it. There are people in Bengal who have spend their entire life studying his works. 

The national anthem of India "Jana,Gana, Mana" and the national anthem of Bangladesh " Amar Sonar Bangla" were songs originally composed by Rabindranath Tagore. 

From the life of Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda lived in a time when Indian needed to rise from the misfortune brought to it by foreign rule. Swamiji by his work in Europe and USA managed to change the global perception of Indian culture and also generated just enough funds to be able to build a math in in Belur just outside Calcutta( now Kolkata) on the banks of river Ganga. 

He wanted Belur Math to become a centre of spiritual energy and knowledge that would transform the country. Today Ramakrishna Mission has 748 educational institutions under its fold with over 2,00,000 students. Ramkrishna Mission produces some of the best students in India. 

Swami Vivekananda said "Service to Man is service to God " RKM runs many hospitals and dispensaries across the country serving 8 million patients each year. In addition to this at the time of natural calamities the monks and other people from the math and mission go to the affected places ,rescue and serve the affected people. 

The ideals of self belief, fearlessness and selfless service preached by Ramakrishna Pramhamsa, Swami Vivekananda has been accepted and followed by many individuals across the nation. 

In his lifetime before going to USA there were occasions when Swamiji wanted to simply get into deep samadhi . But God had different ideas for him since he had come to earth with a purpose. Once Ramakrishna Parmhamsa while in  meditation had a vision in which he had seen that a from the constellation Saptarshi(Little Dipper) fell on earth at a place where Swamiji was born.

When Ramakrishna Pramhamsa met Swamiji for the the first time young Naren around 18 at that time. Naren sang a bengali devotional song "Mon Chalo Nijo Niktone" in his melodius voice the song had a profound influence on Ramakrishna, he at once recognised the spiritual potential of young Narendra. 
Naren asked the Master "Sir , have you seen God?" to that the Ramkrishna replied in affirmitive and also mentioned that even he or anyone who has sincere yearning for God can see Him. 

Initially Naren regarded Ramakrisna as insane but something in him attracted his soul towards Ramakrishna. In their second meeting at Dakshineshwar Naren had an even more stranger experience. In an ecstatic mood Ramakrishna drew near Naren said something and then placed his foot on Naren's chest. At this touch of the Master Naren saw everything around him and even himself falling into a void . He felt that he was about to die and he shouted " What are you doing to me, I have parents, brothers , sisters at home. "

On his third visit a similar thing happened . Sri Ramakrisna took him to the neighbouring garden and touched him and at this touch Naren lost consciousness. Later reffering to this event Sri Ramakrishna mentioned that in that unconscious state he had asked many questions to Naren regarding his past lives , his mission in this life in the word and the duration of his present life. The answers that he got confirmed what he already thought about Naren.

 According to Ramakrishna Naren had attained perfection even before he was born . He was adept in meditation and also prophesied that the day when Naren realized his true self he would give up his body just by an act of will as perfect(siddha)yogis do.  

From Swami Vivekananda's life

Swami Vivekananda was the pioneer in rebuilding of India that was completely destroyed during foreign rule. When Swamiji travelled across the nation he found horrendous poverty everywhere. The entire nation was mired under oppressive foreign rule with tremendous poverty, ignorance and superstition everywhere. The British were not at all interested in doing anything to improve the lives of the people.

The country was passing through one of the worst phases in its history. Swamiji wanted to do something about the situation. The perception of India in world at that time was of a primitive , uncivilized nation. The British back then thought of themselves as a superior race. They had already destroyed the Gurukul system of education, Indian industries, Indian trade . The system of education that they brought was just to get a few clerks and lawyers for themselves. It was expensive and very few could afford it.

Swamiji wanted to do something about the situation The Maharaja of Khetri had suggested him to visit "The Parliament of Religions" that was supposed to be held in Chicago, USA. Swamiji thought long and hard about it. Since he was travelling throughout the country at that time he decided to take the final decision at Rameshwaram in South India.

When he arrived in Cape Comiron(Kanyakumari) after visiting the temple of Goddess. His eyes fell on an islet in the ocean he swam across the ocean and meditated on the rock. He reflected his experiences of his travel across the country , about India's past and its future. It was here he took the decision of visiting the Parliament of Religions scheduled to be held in Chicago.

Before that one night he did have a dream in which he saw Ramakrishna on the sea asking him to "Go" . In his travels across India in which he followed the direction shown by his spirit, it seemed that he was always aided by god. 

Swamiji had to overcome great difficulties to finally be able to speak at the "Parliament of Religions". While on his way from Boston to Chicago the Swami lost the address and his wallet. He had to spend a night in railway wagon and next day he was met with lot of indifference from people to whom he enquired about the directions of World Fair Grounds, because of his soiled cloth and unshaven appearance. He finally sat at the end of a road hungry and exhausted when Mrs George W Hale , who lived nearby noticed him and enquired if he was a delegate to the Parliament of Religions. 

She took him to her house where he finally got something to eat and bath. Mrs Hale accompanied him to the offices of Parliament of Religions where she introduced Swamiji to Dr J.H. Barrows . Dr Barrows was the President of Parliament. After that Swamiji was accepted as a representative of Hinduism at the Parliaments of Religions. 

The rest is history the first introductory speech given by Swamiji at the Parliament of Religions made him a superstar, his fame spread across USA and the news also made its way to India. Where the people who knew Swamiji were throughly overwhelmed. 

Swamiji lived in US and lectured on India, Vedas and Indian history and religion in different cities of USA winning admirers, disciples and followers on the way. From there he went to England and continued his work also visited other places in Europe and met Max Muller. 

Thus across America and Europe the image of India changed they knew more about the history of India and its past contribution to the world. The perception on Indian religion changed. 

It was Swami Vivekananda who has inspired several Indian freedom fighters be it Gandhiji, Bose and many others. It one of his prophetic visions in 1897 Swamji had predicted that in around 50 India will become free with a very unique freedom struggle. 

Swami Vivekananda's contribution in rebuilding of India is paramount the work continues till today. Infact it is Swamiji himself who had said that even after my death I shall work. I am sure he is watching us in his fine body(सुषम शरीर ) for the work is not over yet. 

Siddhartha to Buddha

When Buddha was born a sage Asita visited the palace of the King took baby Siddharth in his lap and begin to weep. When asked the reason for his tears he said "This boy would either be a great sage or a great king, I am crying because I won't be alive to see it". Siddharth's father Susodhana wanted his son to be a king and expand his empire , after the prophecy of the sage the king was worried and made arrangements to keep young Siddharth away from the miseries of life. 

      He prevented Siddhartha from leaving the palace. Had all luxuries of life arranged at the palace. He was kept ignorant about the sorrows of life. The young prince Siddhartha was getting depressed. So when he was of the right age he was married off to Yasodhara . Prince Siddhartha was unhappy with him being prevented from going around the town of Kapilavastu. So one day he along with charioteer Channa secretly left the palace to visit the town of Kapilavastu. 

     In his visit to the town Siddhartha saw the sights of an old sick man, a corpse and a sage. Before that day Siddhartha did not know that there was anything called death , old age . Channa explained him that all beings that are born get old, fall sick and ultimately die. This is the rule of nature. This experience shocked the young prince who never knew what sorrow was , what death was. 

     Having never seen death , old age and being unaware of other sorrows of life he now begin to think deeply about life , while many others who were exposed to the truth accepted it and moved on this man was now hell bent on finding the cause of sorrow and find a solution of it. Had young Siddhartha be exposed to the truth from his childhood he might have taken the path of a normal person. But it is the visit and the prophecy of sage Asita that changed everything. 

      The exact arrangements that Susodhana made to prevent Siddhartha from turning into a sage actually became the factor of him leaving his life of luxury and go out in the jungle meditate and find the truth---- the cause of sorrow and the solution of it and spread it across the entire world. So it was indeed a divine plan :- the visit of sage Asita, his prophecy and the turn of events that followed. 

               

Reading about Yoga

One of the best books that can be suggested about Yoga is the one by Swami Vivekananda the  book is Raja Yoga : Swami Vivekananda. In the same book you will find the Patanjali Yogasutras. Patanjali is regarded as the father of Yoga. His system is based on the Sankhya system except for the fact that Patanjali believed in a personal god as the first teacher while Sankhya's did not believe in any god.
:- Here is the link of the book http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_1/raja-yoga/raja-yoga_contents.htm

Another book to learn about Yoga is one written by Swami Abhedananda. The book is "How to be a Yogi". Swami Abhedananda was a direct diciple of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa just like Swami Vivekananda .
:- Here is the link of the book http://sacred-texts.com/hin/hby/index.htm

There is a great misconception among people that Yoga is all about postures. Its way much more that that. Yoga is a way of life.

The first line of Patanjali Yogasutras suggest that Yoga is all about  ChittaVrittiNirodhah . While lot of explanation is required to explain what is Chitta and Vritti common people can simply understand them as "Controlling the mind from breaking into thought waves".

There are various different things mention  in Patanjali's Yogasutras.

But remember by reading Yoga is not done. Yoga is only done by regular practice. Once you practice it for a while you will not want to leave it. Don't have any high expectations. Just love Yoga and practice it . Let results take care of themselves. 

Mirakkel 8

The Grand Finale of Mirakkel 8 and it was really entertaining, the best among the contestants of this season gave their best performance. For the last 7 months it has entertained us thoroughly. Today there is gross lack of good comedy programmes on TV and this show fills the void. Not only has this programme filled the homes with laughter but it has made stars of ordinary people.

    In Mirakkel performers and selected through a long audition process followed by a grooming period. Each year thousands of aspirants make a beeline for the audition of this programme. Only a select few make it to the programme and are first groomed properly and then they perform. Even during the programme the lesser performing contestants are eliminated after months of performance 5 contestants make it to the final. 

    More than the competition part what this programme has done is that it has given a lot of happiness the Bengali speaking world mostly based in West Bengal and Tripura in India and Bangladesh. Also Bengalis and people who understand Bengali from around the country and world enjoy this show. Those who cannot watch the programme when it is broadcast can watch this programme which is uploaded by the channel on Youtube. 

    The fact that this programme is uploaded on Youtube enables people to watch the episodes of the past even when it is not broadcast. Laughter is excellent for health. Laughter is the best medicine. In today's world people pass through stress, depression and all other kinds of mental diseases. Laughter is surely the medicine of all this diseases. Mir Afsar Ali the famous Bengali comedian is the host of the programme and quite clearly the show is name after him.

Meat and sacrifice

A few months ago some people on social media were livid about a festival in Nepal called Gadhimai in which bali(sacrifice) of thousands of buffaloes and goats take place. The festival is a money spinner for the Nepalese government which is hit by a downfall in the number of tourists visiting that country. 

    One thing interesting about this opposition is that people who are non-vegetarians are also protesting against this. Now here comes the question "This people don't have any problem eating meat that is obtained by killing an animal so why they have problems with the festival?

    One of the protesters gave example of Buddha and described how he offered his own head to save a heard of goats. Now Buddha himself was not a vegetarian he did have meat but Buddha opposed the sacrifice the reason was that it was not one goat that was to be sacrificed but thousands of them. When an animal is sacrificed its cooked meat is distributed among devotees as prasad. 

In case of the king for whom the sacrifice was made there were thousands of animals. So most of the animals meat would have gone waste. However today we have refrigeration technologies that can keep the meat edible for many weeks. So no meat obtained during the festival was left unused but it would have been ultimately used as food. So there is absolutely nothing wrong in killing an animal for food. After all even plants have life and if you have seen the touch-me-not plant that contracts its leaves when you go close to it shows that they have sensitivity as well.

 This is a truth of life we do eat living beings plants or animals to survive. So as long as no human is killed the festival is OK.

  In India you will find lots of hypocrites who oppose killing of cows but if they have cows at home once the cow(if female) becomes incapable of giving milk or rearing babies or if it is a bull are always in lookout to sell the animal as fast as they can and at the best possible price. The person whom they sell the animals to is normally a butcher or an agent who will in the end sell it to the butcher. 

Most of the people of the world are meat eaters that does not make them bad people as many veggies in India tell us eating meat will make you aggressive and violent. They also say that it would make you cruel. When the Gujrat riots of 2002 happened most of the people who perpetrated the dastardly acts were vegetarians mercilessly killing men, women and children. Huge number of rapes were committed as well. 

    So in case of humans one thing is clear whatever the old books say food has very little effect on human behaviour as long as it is healthy.