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.