Yogakshemam Vahaamyaham?? Or....

Dear friends,
Many of us would have merely skimmed through Renuka Anantharaman’s post titled ‘Life’s Little Lessons Learnt from Little Creatures’ (posted 25-11-08). If however, one were to dwell a little longer to ponder over the message it carried (apart from appreciating the beautiful alliterations in the title) I thought it deserved more than a cursory glance, albeit the lady member has merely touched the tip of the ice-berg (read insect-kingdom). Ten years ago there were approximately 750,000 named insect species. Today, that number is over 1,000,000. And according to a recent article in Scientific American, entomologists estimate that there are likely over eight million different species of insects on Earth. When you compare that to 4,650 named and 4,800 estimated mammal species or the 72,000 named and 1,500,000 estimated fungi, it is easy to see that insects "out-populate" any other living taxonomic group on Earth
The best things come in small packages. Diminutive insects play a vital role in our ecosystems. They aerate the soil, pollinate blossoms, and control insect and plant pests; they also decompose dead materials, thereby reintroducing nutrients into the soil. The relationship between the bees and the flowers they pollinate is so intricate that they are thought to have evolved together.
Some say, "Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer; coneys are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags; locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks; a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings' palaces."


The ants teach us the wisdom of preparation. "Better to be prepared and not called, than to be called and not prepared," is a wise principle to adhere to. For instance, if I want a good job in the future, I need to prepare today. If I want a healthy marriage, I need to work on my growth and maturity today, for only mature people have mature relationships. And if I want God to use me, I need to develop the gifts and talents he has given me. As an old Chinese proverb says, "Dig your well before you're thirsty."


The coneys or rock badgers teach us the wisdom of precaution. How true is the old saying, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." If you want to avoid temptation, don't go where you know you'll be tempted. If you don't want to get into debt over your head, don't borrow what you can't pay. And if you can't swim, don't go into the deep end of the pool. God is faithful, but if we jump off a building, he won't catch us on the way down, as he doesn't go against his own rules! He won't change the universal law of gravity because of my foolishness and irresponsibility. He won't change the moral law either. If I try to break it, it will break me.


The locusts teach us the wisdom of unity. Have you ever tried to row a boat with a friend? If you don't pull together in harmony, you'll get nowhere fast, go in circles, or run into the bank. To keep moving forward, you don't have to over-exert yourself, just keep pulling together. And if we don't pull together as a family, a community, or a nation, working in harmony with the principles of life as found in our scriptures, we will end up on the rocks!


The lizards teach us the wisdom of perseverance. "If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done … Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow—perhaps it all will," say the Wise.
Likewise one can learn something useful from each of the 10quintillion insects sent on earth through God's creation!!!

Ciao
Warm rgds
V~v~R
13-12-08.

Dear friends,
Ahimsaka soldier of Islam!
(I am a believer in nonviolence and I say that no peace or tranquility will descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence is practised, because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people. There is advantage only in construction. I want to tell you categorically I will not support anybody in destruction.) --Abdul Ghaffar (Badshah) Khan
Dear friends,
The pain in everyone’s heart is palpable after the recent Mumbai –blasts. In the background of such extremely emotional trauma, I thought of sharing a review written in ‘Yes’ magazine, by Michael N Nagler on a book by Sree Eknath Easwaran (What an author!!) titled ‘Non-violent soldier of Islam’; while hoping that it is not out of place.
Little known in the outside world is a figure named Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who argued that religiously justified violence was "not God's religion." Known as Badshah Khan to his followers, the devoutly Muslim leader was called "The Frontier Gandhi" and built an Islamic parallel to Gandhi's violence-eschewing ideals of compassion for one's enemies and peaceful resistance to oppression as a means of overcoming it.
Now read on the attachment…………I am not trying to prove anything…..
Warm rgds
V~v~R
14-12-08
‘Life’s Little Lessons Learnt from Little Creatures’…Some More..!!
Dear friends,
After my obsession about the ‘insect world’ (thanks to Renuka Anantharaman’s above post) it is now the fabulous ’plant kingdom’. My neighbour Bilqueez is a Green-thumb…..a plant and animal lover. So last week when I saw her pruning the hedges I asked her, “Do you know what you are doing?”
“What?...just trimming the hedges….that’s all” she said.
“You are espaliering the hedges” I said.
“What’s that?” she queried
“ESPALIER..as a noun it means a tree trained to grow flat against a wall (see picture attached). As a verb..To train a tree in such a way…Typically fruit trees such as apple and pear are grown as espalier. The advantages of an espalier are that it can be grown in a small space, gets more sunlight, and provides easier access to the fruit.” I said showing off my vocabulary!
So there’s more to trees and plants than we think.
A few months back I noted this quotation from the journalist Hal Borland (1900-1978): "You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet."

But astute linguaphile Mark Germer wrote in response:
"Recent work on information processing (even kin recognition) in plants suggests that there may be more going on there than we now understand; as for birds and mammals, it has long been appreciated that they are perfectly capable of deception and subversion. For my part, I don't find these things odd or disturbing, as it's the continuity of all life that intrigues me most. Humans are not alone
Deceptive and "criminal" behavior among animals, particularly those birds and mammals that live in social groups and pair-bond with their mates like us, is an endlessly fascinating topic. Of course predators and prey both use camouflage, the most basic form of deception. But within their own species, many individuals also act in ways that we would consider immoral, i.e. deceptive or downright destructive, and are responded to in much the same way that we do by their victims, mates, or the community at large.
Yet in a sense Hal Borland is still right, since how can you frame an "accusation" implying moral judgments against creatures acting on instincts that are the product of millions of years of evolution? Everywhere we look in nature we see ourselves mirrored, and we have much to learn about the roots and rudiments of our own behavior at both the individual and societal levels by doing so.
When ESPALIERED: ……Do the plants feel like a pampered pet being groomed, or do they bear the assault? It may be that they determine to just grow new vertical shoots in defiance while captive in our yards?
So next time you pluck a mango from a tree or trim that hedge, or chop, twist, bend, and stunt as you shape them, be aware that it may not be as oblivious as you think.

BTW, even bacteria have social lives and sophisticated coordination and communication. Don’t believe? Go to the paper @ http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/papers/Trends-published.pdf and read you will be amazed!
You mean “What has this to do with our group objectives?”…Search me. But if Arjuna could ask (Gita 13.1) Prakritim purusham..kshetram, kshetrajnam..gnyaanam..gnyeyam….veditum icchaami…I thought why not we!
Thank you all for your patience.
Warm rgds V~v~R 14-12-08.
Gregorian? New year 2009
Dear friends,
I thoroughly enjoyed viewing Sri S Srinivasan’s pps on Year-2009 and the optimistic messages it carried. I thought (as a compliment to the same) of penning my own version of how I look at the coming New Year.
We always visualize sunrise as the beginning of a new day and the sunset as the end. What we at times forget is that without darkness there would not have been a new dawn. Like wise, without problems we would never know the value of life. Yesterday, I was reading a story to my niece’s son who loves listening to stories. The wonderful thing is every time I read out something to him; I see his eyes light up because these stories carry some small lessons for him… a child all of 5 years…
BUTTERFLY
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!
My grand-nephew was quite confused and never understood a word of what I said; so, I gave him an example of his life. “There is a right time for everything”, I said. “You started to crawl before you started walking. You learnt alphabets before you started reading and writing.”
He added in his own innocent manner that it was all because of grandpa who with his stories helped him to know so many things.
After putting him to bed I gave his sayings a thought. We have so many expectations from life. When we start doing something we expect everything to fall into place. What we do not realize is that behind the success we have the blessings of the Almighty and our elders, the help of our friends, the trust of the innocent youngsters and our own efforts.
We shall move ahead with the memories of 2008 printed in our heart and look towards a new sunrise with a new confidence. Let us set our goals right this year as 4B helps us to see the year 2009 in a better way with Personalized encouragement for the Year 2009 from our ever friendly ’Cheenu’. In a lighter vein, no he is not crossing the fence as someone doubted! He may at best take a few snaps of the setting sun behind the minarets of a mosque at ‘Kanchi’ ….with background music tuned to some ‘Evening Raga’ ….his own way of symbolically conveying what he has in mind…..visuals speak better than a million words
Warm Regards,
V~v~R
14-12-08



Yogakshemam Vahaamyaham
(The Bhagavad Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions)— Dr. Albert Schweitzer
Dear friends,
Last Tuesday (9th Dec) was Gita Jayanthi Day: celebrated by all lovers of this most sacred scripture on the eleventh day (Ekadashi) of the bright half of the month of Margaseersha (December-January). It was on this day that Sanjaya narrated to King Dhritaraashtra the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, and thus made the glorious teachings of the Lord available to the people of the world, for all time. The Gita is the most beautiful and the only truly philosophical song. It contains sublime lessons on wisdom and philosophy. It is the universal gospel. It contains the message of life that appeals to all, irrespective of race, creed, age or religion. Many words from this “Song Celestial” have been adopted as slogans by various institutions. Example..Nabhah sprusam deeptam by Indian Air Force (to mean touch the sky with Glory). Another.. Yogakshemam Vahaamyaham (from Gita 9.22) by LIC which is not a mere slogan but has become a mission statement meant for market penetration. It is around the latter that this story is spun.
ananyaascintayanto maam ye janaa paryupaasate
teshaam nityaabhiyuktaanaam yogakshemam vahamyaham

meaning – (I the supreme God or consciousness protect and take care, the yoga and kshema of my devotee who does my upasana with unstinted devotion taking me only as the consciousness behind every action always.)
Does anyone remember the story of a Brahmin who had once amended this verse from Gita because he thought it was NOT true. ? A story I heard goes like this………..
Arjunacharya, a Brahmin as poor as a field rat was writing his commentary on the Gita. He saw this verse and thought it a mistake to believe that the Lord would personally carry whatever was needed to each devotee. He therefore scratched out vahAmi (I personally carry) and inserted karomi (I have it done). The Brahmin thought, “What is the need for Bhagavan doing it Himself? Being all powerful, He will get it done."

After making the change in the text he went for Unjavrithi. While he was gone, his wife heard a knock at the door. Two handsome looking boys, but shaken up a bit were at her doors insisting that she quickly accept the food that her husband had sent for her. The boys were in pain and anxious to get away from her house sooner the delivery of food was made, because, they told her, that they were afraid the great Brahmin scholar Arjunacharya would probably thrash them again.

The good lady expressed her disbelief and swore that her husband would never hurt a fly leave alone do such a despicable act of beating children. But then the dark boy said, "See?" and turned to show her the marks on his back where he had been struck. Then they both dashed away.
Arjunacharya's wife was bewildered, and angry at her husband. She began to warm up and eat the food the boys had brought. Upon Arjunacharya's arrival, he was shocked to see his wife partaking the food, as it was quite unusual for her to do so without waiting for him. When admonished, she narrated the entire episode as to how the two boys had come and left a bountiful supply of food and after the dark boy had showed her the marks on his back, she got convinced about how cruel one could get in the heat of the moment no matter how great a scholar one professed to be. She just had no time for such an individual and as entreated by the boys she had cooked and now dining too. The acharya was no less perplexed. He thought for a few moments and asked his wife to describe the boys in more details….what they looked like. Upon hearing that one was of a beautiful darkish complexion and the other was fair, he could understand that his fortunate wife had been blessed with the darshana of Krishna and Balarama. The scar marks were the result of his having scratched out the word vahAmi. Krishna then had taken upon Himself to come personally to prove His words, "I carry for the devotees what they lack with my own hands."…the purport in this case being the much needed food for the poor Brahmin couple.!!!!!

Warm rgds
V~v~R
14-12-08