Do we deserve our goals?

The story ascribed to laila and Majnu always intrigues me. The story goes like this:

Once, while travelling towards the palace of Laila, Majnu had to traverse through the hot sands of a desert. He was thinking of his union with his beloved and was literally running in that direction of the palace. It so happened that there was a mullah who was performing his mid-day prayers in the desert. Majnu, did not notice him and so, happened to kick the mullah in his absent minded state.

The Mullah was supposed to have got very upset and began to shout at Majnu and accused him of being blind. When Majnu still did not pay heed, the Mullah ran up to Majnu and catching hold of his robe demanded that he apologise for his "wanton" deed. The Mullah was surprised to see Majnu smiling. 

In clarification to the surprised Mullah, Majnu said: " I was so immersed in the prospective re union with my worldly beloved, that i did not even notice the wrong i have done to holy man like you. But, you were so (less) engrossed in your union with your heavenly beloved that you not only felt the affront but also decided to abandon the communion to chase me....."

Wither goest our determination to pursue our chosen goal(s) when we apparently are immersed in our daily prescribed / ascribed chores!!!

Esp. n the wake of the movie 2012

Just last night I watched the movie '2012' and the words 

'I Only hope we find God again before it is too late ! !'  gives me an eerie feeling :-)

I like the authors approach in this write up.


Remarks from CBS Sunday Morning - Ben Stein

I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !



The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday  Morning  Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.  I don't feel threatened.  I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me.  I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.  In fact, I kind of like it.  It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu .  If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.  I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country.  I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.  But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different:  This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina)..  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.  I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he's talking about.  And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did.  But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.



My Best Regards,  Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

God Bless You,

A fresh perspective to start your day ...]

The Challenge         The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish. If the return trip took more time, the fish were not fresh. To solve this problem, fish companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, they were tired, dull, and lost their fresh-fish taste. The fishing industry faced an impending crisis! But today, they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan . How did they manage? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks but with a small shark. The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. The challenge they face keeps them alive and fresh! Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired and dull? Basically in our lives, sharks are new challenges to keep us active. If you are steadily conquering challenges, you are happy. Your challenges keep you energized. Don't create success and revel in it in a state of inertia. You have the resources, skills and abilities to make a difference. Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!   "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character" - Albert Einstein

A leader knows - How to manage a failure

'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic
forum , Philadelphia, March 22,2008)

Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how
leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the
project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly
called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into
orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told
clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space.
Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams
towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready.
As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch.
At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go
through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute
later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed
that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had
four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done
their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed
the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the
first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem
developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket
system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization,
Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at
7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the
world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range
in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan,
the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference
himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the
team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological
support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would
definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my
failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as
chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite --
and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again,
there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told
me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the
leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he
gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not
come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

Minimum wage details link

The details of minimum wages in India

http://www.paycheck.in/main/officialminimumwages

The details of minimum wages in Andhra Pradesh

http://www.paycheck.in/main/officialminimumwages/officialminimumwages/andhra-pradesh

Fwd: Can you identify a fake smile?

Interesting...this is a pretty neat test. Tests our ability to truly understand and gauge the intentions of humans... and that includes family, friends, colleagues, strangers...and if you are good with people then you are, in all probability, good in life!

Can you know a person just by looking at  his face?

No?

Well right...external appearance is mostly tricky.

Can you identify whether a smile is fake or genuine? I went through the following link. It is a test, asking you to identify whether the smile is fake or genuine. Take the test. How much did you score?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/

The first 2 questions ask you about your attitude towards life. Select the relevant option. After that you have 20 faces smiling at you, and you have to decide whether it is a fake smile or genuine..

All the best..!

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me!

--Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German Intellectuals followingthe Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

Fwd: [SSBB] Fwd: FW: Non-Violence in Parenting - Worth Reading

Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-violence, in his June 9 lecture at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story as an example of "non-violence in parenting":

"I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa , in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbors, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father ask me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced. When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, ' I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together. '

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 6:00.

He anxiously asked me, ' Why were you late? ' I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, ' The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait,
not realizing that he had already called the garage. When he caught me in the lie, he said: ' There' s something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn' t give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went w rong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles and think about it. '

So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads. I couldn't leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again.

I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday.

That is the power of non-violence."

palak paneer

Life is like a Palak Paneerr Curry!!! Everybody wants paneer.

Life is like a Palak Paneerr Curry!!! Everybody wants paneer. They would like to pick up the paneer pieces. But, they seldom realise that given only paneer, they would not appreciate the curry. Palak is a must..the underlying flavour to everything in life. The one who appreciates "palak" is the most satisfied person, as he would really be in want of nothiing....

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USP of a Sai Student

I had the chance to listen to some of the eleders in various meetings and during the course of such meetings, i heard came across one anecdote that had left a deep impression on me.

It seems one of our students expressed concern over the politics in various samithis and the in-fighting going on, when he was being briefed about the need to join the organisation and infuse the values that he had learnt. The elder listened to him very patiently and at the end, made a small comment- " Yes! what you have observed is right! Our generation was not blessed with the opportunity oof listening and being guided by the Avatar of the age- Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Whereas you have been blessed by Swami and have been guided at various stages in your life. It is time that YOU make a change in these so called muddy waters!"

We keep hearing of instances at work place wherepeople become upset as their colleagues do not behave as had been expected! This is because of the fact that one started using the head to resolve issues instead of the heart!

The values and the teachings of Swami have always been to strengthen our heart- moral fibre, etc.In fact, HIS mission statement is (permit me to coin the terminology here)- "..to set right the wicked and not to punish or destroy..." So, when in a situation that demands our presence, it IS heart that has to be used and NOT head....if the best in us has to come out!

Many a management guru would comment saying," one must empathise before making a decision either in favour or against..."

The "heart" has no bias. It is pure love. One can depend on it to deliver justice. The heart understands the circumstancces under which the person had reacted the way he did and so, would address the situation that started the issue and not try to reslove the issue per se.

The expressions vary..but, i am surre the "Heart" would understand!