Warrier's Collage 08072020 : Nostalgia

Watch "INDIAN Mantra For Peace Of Mind, Prosperity and Joy (ANCIENT VEDIC SHANTI MANTRA)" https://youtu.be/TkcSKWx9m04 Audio Warrier's Collage 08072020 : Nostalgia Good Morning I'm getting encouraging responses from many. Select responses are being included in subsequent messages. Regret inability to acknowledge responses individually due to various constraints. Many thanks to all who are supporting this effort. M G Warrier Guidance from K S Iyer, Ex-RBI : Responding to a prayer quoted in Warrier's Collage, yesterday, Iyer wrote : सोहम् is made of two words सः means He and अहम् means me. We have been told to perform worshipping with mindset of सोहम्, that is to feel He is there within me. Now while starting Meditation, we do breathing practice to have a control on the mind. While inhaling say in mind सः to take in positive divineful He and exhale अहम् the negative I ness. 🙏🏼🕉💐🕉🙏🏼 A. Nostalgia 1) Those good old days and the power of nostalgia https://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/jyHvNAFpaEq9c5mo3DA1yI/Those-good-old-days-and-the-power-of-nostalgia.html This is a 2016 article with focus on marketing. Still covers some relevant aspects of nostalgia. 2) Madras: An emotion! https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/smruti-way/madras-an-emotion-22830/ Here's an article which will make everyone who has visited Madras/Chennai at least once in life nostalgic. Posted online comments : THE TIMES OF INDIA Dear Reader, Your comment on the article ' Madras: An emotion!' is now live on timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog. ' i wonder whether the city would have at any time in her centuries old history got so much love, understanding and appreciation in one place as has been expressed in this article. congratulations, chennai, no madras, you can look forward to a. bright future with confidence. the style of writing gives us a right to expect more from smriti.' To reply to this comment , or see the whole conversation, click here. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Regards, Team TOI B. What's Nostalgia? https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/nostalgia-middle-class-india-of-the-70s-this-relates-to-all-of-us If you don't find satisfactory answer, move on... C. Pleasure and Pain Sukham and Dukkham* "Man is after pleasure, shuns pain. Sukham and Dukkham are broadly the words in Samskrtam, though these words are wider in application and content and connotation. What is Sukham? What is Dukkham? Sukham is what is agreeable for the mind and body. Dukkham is what is disagreeable to the mind and the body. What is disagreeable or agreeable to the body or intellect is always conveyed through the mind and only mind becomes the purveyor of Sukham and Dukkham. If the mind is isolated from the feeling of agreeableness or disagreeableness, then there is no Sukham or Dukkham. For example: a child injures its limb. It "feels" the pain, the physical pain is not in its mind but in the injured limb, but the feeling of the pain by the mind only makes it cry. If the mother comes to the child then and gives it a piece of chocolate and says a few soothing words, its "feeling" in its mind is diverted to the sweetness in the mouth given by the chocolate and it stops crying because its mind does not "feel" the pain. But the pain in the injured limb is still there, the child does not "feel" it. Once the sweetness given by the chocolate tapers off the injured limb may still convey its pain and the child may resume crying. The Dukkham is thus given by or is the state of the mind. Similarly, Sukham is also a feeling of agreeableness of having got some thing like a sweet, fulfillment of a desire, etc. These feelings are also temporary and vanish when the mind gets diverted to other events or feelings. Therefore, if one wants to get out of a Dukkham or sukham, one has to divert the mind to other areas, away from the factor which caused the feelings of Sukham or Dukkham. When a pain killer is given to remove pain in any part of the body, what is actually done is that the medicine deactivates the enzyme which conveys the throbbing pain to the mind and one does not feel the pain. But the pain producing problem is still there in the body. That is why we often, without realising this truth, resort to prayers when we have Dukkham, instead of diverting the mind from the causative factor of the Dukkham. We seldom think of god or prayers when we have Sukham! That is the reason why our great sages advocated control of mind, which can arise only by/from practising dhyaanam, which can be helped by praanaayaamams of different kinds. Praanaayaamams also help to some extent in increasing the oxygen supply to the body and body cells and rejuvenate them, which in turn helps concentration of mind in areas which are away from the factors causing Dukkham. From childhood, we are (wrongly) advised that if we worshipped a particular god or goddess then there will be relief from Dukkham. This does not happen, because such worship is done without taking the mind off the causative factor of the Dukkham. Relief from the Dukkham can be had only by diversion of the mind to other areas, because it is the mind which conveys to us the feeling of Dukkham. What are the sources of Man's Sukham and Dukkham? Mainly there are three sources. The first is the natural causes and events. These are outside the control of Man. Examples: Extreme climatic conditions which affect the physical body, like summer heat, wintry cold, other natural causes like earthquakes, volcanos, storms, tsunamis, forest fires, etc. There is very little that Man can do to prevent these events. To a limited extent, some measures are adopted by Man to combat things like summer heat and wintry cold - by airconditioning, by electric fans, having residences with tall ceilings and thatched roofs, etc. and by having fire place during winter, having woollen clothes to give comfort during cold seasons, etc. Other things like Tsunami and earthquakes and volcanos are beyond Man's control. Therefore, any Sukham and Dukkham created by natural events cannot be effectively dealt with by Mind control. One can only get relief by moving oneself from the areas where these calamities occur or by some artificial means to a limited extent. The next source of Sukham or Dukkham is external to one's own conduct. That is the conduct of others towards one. These may include other individuals or animals, birds or others like insects, etc. Some may cause physical injury and others may cause mental injury. One can take precautions to prevent physical injury, but when a person causes mental injury to another, this can be remedied only by mind control - by diverting the mind away from the incident. In the modern world, most of the persons complain that their Dukkham is attributable to external source: the behaviour and conduct of others - maybe interpersonal relations between parents and children, husband and wife, teacher- student, boss and subordinate, neighbours, friends turning foes, etc. What is often forgotten here is that in interpersonal relations there are two or more parties and it is not necessarily that one alone is responsible for the Dukkham. To move away from this Dukkham, cultivation of mind to move away from the events or incidents is much more necessary than in the case of Dukkhams arising from other sources. If we are not able to change the other's point of view or the conduct of the others with whom we have to carry on further in life, we have to tell our minds that we better adopt other ways to move away from the feeling of Dukkham than drowning ourselves in the feeling of Dukkham. Our inability (call it stubbornness or ego that tells that I am right and he/she is wrong) to remove the feeling from our mind would add up to the intensity of the Dukkham causing depression or extreme anger exploding some time or the other or oftener. That is not going to remove one's Dukkham. The Dukkham in such cases can be removed only by concentrating the mind in other matters, away from the interpersonal relations, without breaking the relations. Here exercises of mind control come into play. Dhyaanam, praanaayaamams, etc., help to a great extent. Similar Sukham is felt when some one dear to us achieves some thing which is great, gets an award, passes an examination with distinction, etc. Such Sukham is short lived and vanishes when a Dukkham intervenes or another Sukham giving incident occurs. The third source of Sukham or Dukkham is oneself: one's own conduct. Here, neither the Nature nor an external factor is involved. I fall down, I get injury, and I suffer the pain and feel the pain in my mind. I can remedy this by application of some medicine to the injured part and by as far as possible turning the mind away from the incident. During sleep, we all have some sort of "Sukham", because after a sound sleep and after getting up, we say "I had a 'good' sleep" - unless the sleep is marred by a bad dream! That bad dream may cause Dukkham for some time or for some days, depending upon the intensity of feeling it had on your mind. Here also this Dukkham can be remedied by diversion of the mind away from the dream. For removal of Dukkham, one has to strive oneself for moving the mind to other areas. This comes from a conscious cultivation - "Abhyaasa" and "Vairgaagya". Any amount of blaming our stars or "fate" or others is not going to help us." *Received by email from Shri C V Subbaraman, Ex-RBI, Mysuru D. Some tips Discover Yourself https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/discover-yourself-185453 Nostalgia sometimes takes us to tough terrains. Here's help to find your way back. E. Interaction Shri V Babusenan's response to message of July 6, 2020 : "Warrier's Collage is like a sumptuous buffet dinner where you choose the dishes you like, enjoy eating them and go home contented. I feel delighted to know that my old friend Ramasubramanian is one among us that gather at the buffet table. The Thiruvananthapuram office, before it became full-fledged, was functioning for quite some time in a grand old mansion which once belonged to a member of the Travancore royal family.A part of D.B.O.D functioned in the Naalukettu there. Ramasubramanian used to be a very active participant among the discussion group in the naalukettu. With a smiling face, pleasing manners and balanced views ,he tolerated puerile ideas emanating from people like me. I hope you are fine, sir. The discussion about the human body was a useful one.The human body is a marvel .Still more marvellous are the activities,including the making of the various proteins required for the functioning of the body, taking place inside the tiny human cells. It is a sad thing that we generally do not show any inclination to know about our own bodies. As Poonthanam, one of the Malayalam poets of the16th century, wrote in Jnanappana, we are like the proverbial donkey that carries the precious saffron on its back without knowing it's value-'kashmeera gardabhas'. Regards." Shri Ramasubramanian from Mumbai joins : "Dear Shri Babusenan Thank you very much for the remembrance of those lovely days of Naalukettu the traditional style of an ingredient of any big house in Kerala. The nadumitham at the centre of general Naalukettu( not in Belhaven) is the place where all the rain water from the roof rush into only to mix into the exit. Nalukettu brings in nostalgic memories of John Chandy the permanent officer on inspection with full knowledge of all trains timings from Trivandrum to any place in Kerala. This acquired knowledge will translate into a week consisting of 8 days, with reckoning more than 12 hours into one day. Fortnight can have 16 days and so on. Ramaseshan struggling with drafting of commented advances fearing to face S Venkataraman the proverbial editor of inspection report. Mr. Bendre the big fat man so flexible with his bat on RBI cricket team lead by Lakshmipathy. Gopalasundaram, M O Jacob, Pillai (the fittest shuttle player in his late fifties), Noor Mohammed, Mr. T A Mohammad, Varikattu Oommen Gopi and the typical Madhavan Nair. The erudite PRR Nayar. The list will go on. But I am sure this would have triggered many more names running through your mind. The literary aspect of Shri Babusenan always stand out in any conversation with him. Mr. P P Ramachandran often refers to the literary credentials of shri V B. VB was for a long in the inspection division known as D 1 section. The pleasant disposal of shri VB with calmness as his attire is something that I emulated in the infancy of my career in RBI. Today's topic of Warrier is silence but what I am doing is the opposite by writing a lot. Let me close here for silence to prevail. Regards Shri VB" M G Warrier adds : I too have some interesting memories about the period when Trivandrum RBI was housed at Belhaven, Kaudiar. Today that 6 acre compound has RBI Officers' Quarters plus VOFs (in the original "palace" building). I'll come back to the subject later. F. Response Shri V Babusenan's response to message of July 7, 2020 : On two occasions in my pretty long life, I could enjoy the ecstasy of silence: one on the Vivekananda rock and the other inside the memorial of Saint Thyagaraja at Thiruvaiyaru. 'Gurostu mounam vyakhyanam' goes the saying. It is said that Sri Sankara used to clarify all doubts of his disciples through silence. Ramana Maharshi of Thiruvannamalai was well-known for his silence. Those who came to the ashram, seeking solace or with some spiritual problem, sat in his presence immersed in the pool of silence and went back satisfied. There is the story of the American philosopher Emerson sailing all the way to England to meet Thomas Carlyle. In the latter's drawing room they sat in utter silence for quite some time looking at each other and Emerson left fully pleased. The story is hard to believe but speaks volumes about the glory of silence. There is a famous film song in Malayalam dedicated to silence. According to the lyricist, sorrow is the twin sister of silence that comes running to see her sister from the gently flowing breeze and the lovely flower that slowly opens its petals. Perhaps, many will raise their eye brows when I say Corona virus is teaching us a few lessons about the value of silence. Regards."