Stories from Mahabharata by H. H. Shri 1008 Shri Satyātma Tīrtha Swamigalu

Story:

There once lived a middle aged Rishi who was doing severe penance in the forest.  

He was doing penance for a long time and one day when he was meditating, a bird did its droppings on his head.  He looked at that bird with anger and that moment the bird was burnt to death.  He was sorry the bird died because of him but since it was already dead he was not able to do anything about it.  On hindsight he was also happy that he had achieved a level in his penance that he could burn other beings by simply looking at them with anger.

He then prepared to gather alms for his next meal and started going door to door in a near by village asking for food.  In one of the houses, a highly pious Pativrata woman asked him to wait so that she can give some food for him.  This woman was highly devoted to her husband and her elderly in-laws and had their complete blessings. By the time she could bring the food to the her husband had arrived from work and hence she took care of her husband by giving him some water and took care of him for some time before she could come back to give the food the the Rishi who was waiting.  Since it was getting delayed the Rishi grew restless and yelled out 'Are you giving me the food or do I continue to the next house?' .  There was some arrogance in his voice probably because of his newly acquired power to burn down the bird.  The woman apologized for the delay and asked for forgiveness but also add 'Please don't think of wasting your energy to burn me down like you burnt the bird as it will not work on me'.    The Rishi was startled and immediately realized his mistake.  He apologized to her and asked how in such a young age she had acquired such a power.  What penance she had done to achieve this.  For that she replied the only penance she had done was being devoted to her husband and in-laws.  She further asked him to meet a hunter in a near by village who can further clear his doubts.  

The Rishi then getting the address of that hunter from the woman reached the shop of that hunter in the near by village.  The Rishi waited for him near the shop till he closed the shop for the day and approached him.  The Hunter was very courteous to the Rishi.  He then invited the Rishi to his house and took very good care of his guest.  He gave a lot of respect to him because of his age.  He later continued that he knew about the incident about the burning of the bird and the incident that happened in the village with the woman.   Astonished again by what the hunter said he asked him the source of his power and how he achieved it.  The hunter continued that he ran his business in a very truthful way.  He made sure he was selling quality product for his customers with nominal profits.  He further continued that he also took care of his aged parents who could not move on their own.  It was because of their blessings that he was able to acquire such power.  

He further spoke about the Rishi's past. 

'You had started out of your home town to the forest to do penance.  You have achieved a certain amount of power because of your penance.  But you had left your blind parents behind at your home who are struggling to carry out their day to day life.  Please go back to your home and take care of your parents.  There is no big penance than taking care of your parents and in-laws.  There is nothing one can not achieve with the wholehearted blessings of his parents and elders'.  

The Rishi quickly realized his folly and returned back to his home and started taking care of his parents.  

--This story was narrated by asmad guru H. H. Shri 1008 Shri Satyātma Tīrtha Swami of Bangalore. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gL116A_3VY

Concluding points:

• This story basically advises people to respect elders and take care of old parents and in-laws with love.
• Another point made is that a guy may think he is an expert in his field and it may get to his head at times.  But in reality other people from humbler background may have achieved more than him.
• Also you may be on a quest for something precious and travel far and wide in search of it but it may already be very close to you.

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I heard the Swamiji's speech in Kannada and was very fascinated by the story.  Since out Swamiji has followers across different states including TN, AP and MH in addition to KA, I wanted to translate his story in English so that it can reach my relatives who could not understand Kannada.  I apologize for any  mistake or misinterpretation I may have done. Hari Hi Om .

Is Indian Media Misusing its Freedom?

This blog is in response to the contest "Is Indian Media – Misusing its Freedom?" organized by "Blogadda" in association with Pringoo.


The Indian media has undergone vast changes in the past two decades since liberalization.  According to some estimates, there are around 400 channels in India today.  With news channels mushrooming every day, each one of these channels try to grab the spotlight using sensationalism.  We have had 'Sting Operations' exposing corruption in defence deals, match fixing in cricket and even on communal riots instigated by the ruling party.  While it is understandable that corruption being such a big issue in our country it may even be the right thing for the media to do but sometimes, they tend to cross that line.  I will try to bring some instances to the light which are a cause of concern.

Tamil Nadu.  The state ruled by two very strong regional parties... DMK and AIADMK..  National parties cannot dream of winning the majority of the parlimentary seats without piggybacking on either of these two parties.  While at the national level, the liberalization of the media leads to immature and irresponsible reporting.. here, media bias has gone to a completely different level.  Each of these parties own their own satellite television and their news channels (Sun TV and Jaya TV respectively) which cover only the news of their leaders.  If they report about the opposition leader it is usually hate rhetoric accusing him/her of everything under the sun.

It gets really interesting when the election results are announced.  The two channels report complete different results with people unable to believe either of them.  Either one of them declare results favorable to them and show results as if they are winning the election and one has to turn on the Hindi or English news channels to get the accurate picture. 

Once, during the last rule of ADMK, the DMK chief was arrested at his residence at mid night which sent shock waves across the nations.  Visuals of M Karunanidhi being dragged and kicked were broadcast within hours on Sun TV.  There were also audio of him screaming "They are killing me.. They are killing me" heard.  At the same time Jaya TV was showing footage denying the dragging and kicking.  Each of them telecast interviews of  forensic experts claiming the other channels footage was doctored.  This kind of biased reporting only makes the common man to shut himself off from the daily happenings around him and he looses interest in politics and democracy.

These channels not only target the opposition party leaders but any individual who is slightly critical of them.  In Sun TV, there is a program that reviews latest tamil movies.  One such review was particularly harsh on a comedy movie starring Sathyaraj.  It claimed that the movie was the worst movie ever made and the actor was  not fit for acting and so on.  On watching the movie, we found that that actor had made fun of the TV program which unduly criticized movies.  His claim was, these channels were extensively using movie content to fill their 24 hour time slots and hence should mellow down their criticism as it affected their profits and a lot of hard work goes into any movie.  Now, seeing all this makes one loose faith that he is living in a free democratic country and resembles more like a police state run by a dictator.

A few years ago, there was a new TV channel which exposed a sex racket run by a Government school teacher in Delhi.  It aired a sting operation and an interview of the alleged victim.  This led to a widespread outrage and protesters damaged vehicles and clashed with police.  They even entered her school and assaulted her even ripping off her clothes.  The teacher was immediately suspended and charges for immoral trafficking were framed.  Later it was found that the victim was actually an aspiring journalist and she had faked the entire sting operation.  It was also found that the teacher was innocent but by that time, the damage was done.  I would rate this incident as the all time low in the history of Indian media. Even for Tamil Nadu standards.

It is said that in a democracy, media is one of the pillars.  The reason is in a democracy, people decide who to rule the country.  For that, they need to be well informed about what is happening in the country and media is the only channel at their disposal.  But it is also a very disturbing fact that this media can be bought by money.   A person/ political party with the right amount of money can mend and bend public perception by controlling the media and become the leader of a country.  This holds good not only to India but everywhere around the world. 

While all these misuse happen in India, I am not totally pessimistic about this issue and I believe since the media is still growing with time and proper regulation this issue can be addressed.  Our media needs to mature a lot but the situation is not that bad after all.  This issue is there even in developed countries like the US.  US, which prides itself in declaring as the 'leader of the free world' has one of the most biased media one has ever seen.  The media businesses are controlled by six major corporations and nothing comes out which they deem not fit to report.  Yes, they have their own versions of Sun TV vs Jaya TV in MSNBC and Fox News.

 Reuters is a company based in UK which is one of the world's biggest media companies.  Its news is respected and accepted to be unbiased worldwide.  This company has a unique rule that no individual is allowed to own more than 15% of the company's shares so that this company's tradition of objective and unbiased reporting is not compromised.  Now, our country has its own share of media companies with good reputation which produce news content of the highest quality.   We just have to encourage them to continue doing the same good work,  Our political leaders should have the vision to frame laws to regulate the media coverage so that it can be a real pillar of our democracy and this will be the solution to strengthen the media in our country.

Winner of Blogadda contest

My first skydiving experience

Me with my friends Yomesh, Bhavin, and Mahesh

 Me and my friends went to the Poconos resort town of Tannersville PA for the July 4th long weekend. Our friends had skydiving on the top of their list of the activities during the stay. But I was not sure if I was going to do it till the end because my wife was not there with me and I knew she would love to do it as well. I was a bit hesitant to jump from a plane at 13000 feet and knew not all my friends would go for it. To my surprise, many of my friends and their wives were planning to dive and were very excited about it. One of my friends who had come with his parents and his months old baby did not plan to dive. So we started to make our own plans to spend the time when the other folks were skydiving. Unfortunately, none of our plans worked out and in the end we decided to go with the rest of the group to the airfield and hoped to go somewhere near during their skydive. With no proper alternate plan to do and seeing the rest of my friends geared up and excited, I gave in and signed up for skydiving.

The 'Air Bus'

At the skydiving center, we were first asked to watch a video which started with a short briefing of the risks involved in the act and the details of the disclaimer form were were going to sign. The guy in the video basically said that we can not sue the company in the event of any accident even if it was their fault due to the trainer's negligence or faulty equipment provide by them and I was giving up my legal rights by signing the disclaimer document. I had made up my mind to jump anyways and it did not mean anything to me. Though  I quickly googled up to read the risks of skydiving and was reassured by the fact that the chances of death during skydiving was roughly the same as a woman dying because of child labor. Roughly 1 in 100,000.

The Jump

I met with the instructor with whom I was going to tandem-jump and the photographer who was gonna shoot my jump. If jumping out of an airplane is crazy.. think of the people who do it for a living... They both were very playful and seems to have a good understanding among themselves. Well lets say all this worked out very well to make my experience memorable.

We boarded a plane which looked like a half a century old city bus that runs in Chennai. All this while I was expecting to feel tensed but it did not happen. The plane took us up for a good 15 minutes which felt like ages. I should say they took us quite high (about 13000 feet). All this while I was expecting to feel tensed/ scared but I felt OK. I just kept saying to myself that I have to remember this whole experience clearly and have to enjoy myself to the fullest extent. The doors of planes opened after the lights on the door turned from red to amber to green. I felt the chill air and the sight of the ground below gave me a little scare. The guys in front of me started jumping and the were out of my sight in no time... I tried to calm my nerves and when my turn came, I jumped with out thinking much (or did my instructor push me? ) and then began the most exhilarating experience in my life.

Superman..

It took a few seconds for me to regain my senses and realize what had just happened. After that I started enjoying my first "flight". Yes, I felt like flying and the view was just stunning. The photographer came near us and we did a short spin. That guy could just maneuver himself like a bird and boy what a great job he did with the video and pics... We dove for a minute and a half and in what felt like no time, the instructor pulled the parachute. I felt a the straps tighten up my thighs, the parachute opened up and dive was over.  After that I made myself comfortable with the parachute straps and started enjoying the descent. It felt almost like an airplane landing from then on. I joked something about a roller coaster to my instructor and I don't know if that offended him. He then started to do these spins with the parachute which I enjoyed very much. In no time, we were near the ground and we had a smooth landing on the grass below.

Free fall's over :(..

I have to tell those who are planning to sky dive that while this experience was nothing close to anything I had experienced before.. I never felt scared at all during the whole drop. I never felt uncomfortable either (I always thought my stomach would churn like it happens when we ride a giant wheel but I felt no churning). The only discomfort was when the parachute opened up that the straps were pressing on my thighs.  It is a very different experience and it is nowhere near those rides in an amusement park.  Just close your eyes and jump.. Just kidding.. you don't want to miss out on the amazing view when you jump.

 I found my friend Bhavin had just landed near me and we both did a 'high five' and were walking together towards the hanger just like Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in the movie Independence day.  Too bad we did not find a cigar ;)

Please click here  for more pictures.

Video

Telangana

As a person born in Guntur, I am for a united Andhra Pradesh. I think regions speaking non hindi language in India should stay united. I also believe that the number of MP seats in a state gives a lot of bargaining power with the Center to implement developmental projects in the state. However these are my opinions only and I think the wishes of the the people of Telangana region should be respected.

Regarding KCR and TRS, my opinion is that there is a new trend in Indian politics. Small parties like MNS, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, PMK, TRS can never come to power on its own because the political space in their respective states are full with strong ruling and opposition parties. So, they try to divide people with parochial ideologies based on caste, religion or region hoping to make themselves relevant in politics in their respective states or try to create new states so that they can have a shot at capturing the power. I believe TRS is of the later catagory. This guy KCR was a union minister in UPA 1 and when asked what he did for developing telangana region, we get a dumb response that he was fighting for seperate telangana(This response was from KCR's son in Barkha Dutt's "We the People").

People of Telangana if they wish for a seperate state should ponder this point before they decide: They should think if their leaders who did not work for their development all these years in power can be trusted to bring development to Telangana region. They should think if creating a new state will ensure development or create one more CM post and a group of ministers. Development of a region depends on the leaders from that region and not on others. I highly doubt the capabilities of these leaders.

One should not get mislead by the so called bandhs and agitations that are going on in Telangana or Andhra regions. Any political leader with enough money power can "organize" such agitations with goondaas for money. I strongly believe Bandhs do not reflect the wishes of the people as they can be forced to observe bandh by politically backed hooligans. The Union Government should not capitulate for such blackmail from Telangana or Andhra regions. I strongly believe the below solution is the ideal one for the Telangana imbroglio.

A referendum should be held in the Telangana region giving them a choice to go with United Andhra, Seperate Telangana or Union Territory status at each district level. We can also record each person's first choice and second choice. We can also explore the possibility of creating an autonomous regional council for the Telangana region with the Central Government directly allocating funds for the region and this choice can also be included in the referendum. By referedum we can know for sure the wishes of the people of Telangana with out any doubt. I do not think the people of Andhra should be included in the referendum because, we can not impose their will/wish on the people of telangana. If a husband and wife do not get along well and the wife seeks a divorce, even if the husband does not agree, a divorce should be granted if the wife wishes so. So I am all for having a referendum in Telangana and it will solve the problem once in for all and help in bringing the situation to normal in the region which is adversely affecting businesses there.

The Big Bang Experiment

A lot of my friends are talking about the "Big Bang Experiment" taking place in France/Switzerland. We have been hearing about this very large particle accelerator in which they are going to split the protons. I thought I will share with you guys what I know about this subject.

Sub Atomic Particles

As we all know elements in this universe are made up of atoms. Atoms consist of protons and neutrons forming a nucleus and electrons revolving around them like miniature solar systems. The protons and neutrons in a nucleus are bound by very strong nuclear forces and are virtually indivisible. If you indeed manage to divide the nucleus, you have a nuclear reaction releasing huge amount of energy (A nuclear explosion). Now can the protons be further divided? The answer is yes. If you further divide the protons, you get a sub atomic particle called quark.

Big Bang

According to the Big Bang theory, the universe started with a big bang of intergalactic particles (a very huge nuclear explosion). With in few seconds or minutes of this big bang, the universe existed in the form of a nebulous plasma consisting of the basic building blocks of atoms and elements which form the universe. This was called the quark glue-on plasma. After this initial few seconds or minutes, the particles of the universe began to crystallize into protons, neutrons, atoms and finally the elements which form the universe as we know of today.

The Experiment

The experiment that is happening in France is to find out the environment that existed with in the few seconds of the Big Bang. They are trying to collide two beams of protons at the speed of light so that the protons can be split and for a few milliseconds recreate the scenario just after the Big Bang and from that get a better understanding of the origin of universe.

My First Blog Post

Hi friends,

As you all know I love to discuss various world affairs?? with you all the time.  Honestly I do not know what kept me away from blogosphere for this long.  Such a natural blogger like me should have started blogging way back you may say..  Actually what instigated me in creating a blog was an other blog from my friend Suganya Jawahar.  Anyways, like they say.. better late than never.  

I will be posting on what's happening with me, my interests, politics in India and the US and other stuffs related to me.  Like a true software professional, you will find a lot of 'cut and paste' in my postings.  Please bear with me on that. 

 Whatever I have posted here or commented here would be my opinion on any subject. All my friends are invited to my blog.. You guys can also keep your comments posted so that we can have our ideas shared over here.   Hope that with all your support this will be a success.