Warrier's Collage May 21, 2021

Welcome to Warrier's COLLAGE On Friday MAY 21, 2021 Good Morning Response from readèrs at H Nice Day M G Warrier https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/optimization-of-use-of-resources-32064/ A Faith/Spirituality 1) Satsangam with Panchapagesan Nityam Samachittatvam Ishtanishtopapattishu : 15th Quality Constant balance of Mind in desirable and undesirable happenings... Gita XIII, Slokas 7 to 11: 20 qualities of a GNANI.. Today the world controls, dictates to, bosses over us. The smallest of negative happenings agitates us. The pettiest things throw us off balance. Even the happiness we derive from life seems to depend upon agreeable weather, the wife’s smile, a good cup of Tea, or a bus on Time.. Our mind is tossed in all directions like a weathercock in stormy weather. We must learn the art of coping with the changes in the world. Nothing stays with us forever. The world is a mixture of pleasant and unpleasant events and environments. That is the nature of the world. It is impossible to have either of them only. Even if we did have only the most pleasant things around, it would become stale and monotonous after a while.. We are bound to go through desirable and undesirable happenings in our life. Let us not identify with either of them. Watch the procession of good and bad pass by. Be balanced in both. Therein lies true happiness. Independence is the very essence of manhood. We must learn to stand firm as a lighthouse in the sea of challenges. Observe other creatures. They are wholly dependent on the world. They have no spiritual potential at all. They cannot attain happiness without the help of the world. When pleasant objects and beings visit them they are happy. When the unpleasant things visit them they are unhappy. Their happiness is derived from the world of objects and beings. But man belongs to the highest species. His happiness need not depend upon perceptions, emotions and thoughts. We need not slavishly depend upon the world. We can gain perfect mastery over the world. Trials and tribulations, oppositions and obstacles that come in our way only bully and frighten us. They do not really harm us. Let us stand firm and outlive them. Then we will find they are only seeming difficulties and disturbances. V. T. Panchapagesan 2) Prayer Vishnu Sahasranamam* https://youtu.be/zKC17254flc *Concept and context: See E 2 (Link selected by: M G Warrier) B Lead Article : Vathsala Jayaraman Chennai Is God, Verb or Noun? : Courtesy: Discourse by Osho-Gist of speech. Osho says: "The Atheists say "there is no God. I also say there is no God. But there is a lot of difference between my statement and their statement." For them (OshoJi, speak for yourself only, atheists have not given any brief to theists and vice versa!🙏-Warrier) it is like a bullock cart. If you remove the wheels and other parts one by one, all parts remain single and no part can be called bullock cart. Similarly if you remove the limbs, bones etc etc of any living being, you will not find anything like 'consciousness' as it is only an epi phenomenon and it was only a combination. But Osho says that he denies the personality of God but there is tremendous GODLINESS. That is pure energy and to impose any form to it is ugly. The world consists of verbs and actions and not nouns. Nouns are human inventions. The flower is flowering, river is flowing. Baby becoming a boy, boy into a man, life turning to death. There is no full stop and there is continuous activity. When you say 'God' as a noun, we are referring to something 'static' and not alive. God who is absolute, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent cannot be a static noun but can only be an activity-oriented verb. Godliness, ( though grammatically a noun) is altogether in a different plane. The greenness of tree, flowering of rose and flying birds, flowing rivers do form part of it. Then God is not separate from the Universe.The Universe itself is vibrating, pulsating and breathing Godliness. After reading this I got a sincere doubt whether to call rose as a flower or flowering and address Ganga not as a river but as 'flowing'. As a student, very weak in English grammar, I may not know the kinds of nouns and verbs but as a human being I can feel the pulse of God. Let Him be a noun, pronoun, adjective ,verb or adverb. Who bothers? (Even God doesn't care! Believe me🙏-Warrier) C Current Affairs Healthcare: C-Management, India Vs US Words from Rupa Murthy, a doctor in USA (FB Post): The COVID wave India is facing now, USA has already faced. US has a population of 328.2 MILLION, as opposed to India’s population of 1.36 BILLION. USA had 599,863 COVID related deaths. USA has one of the best healthcare infrastructures, USA has resources, has money. Yet, how many of you know USA underwent immense struggle during COVID surge? How many of you know there was acute shortages of medications, PPE kits- including face masks, even syringes and needles used in hospitals/healthcare settings? (We continue to have shortages of certain medications). How many of you know there was no room to store bodies in the morgues, the funeral homes were backed up? How many of you know there was and there is shortage of healthcare personnel? How many of you know many people lost jobs? No, there was no extra money that was paid to prescribers to treat COVID patients . The shifts were long and excruciating at times. Most of us didn’t get to see our kids for days at a time. Many a time, healthcare workers weren’t able to pee for hours together- because they were that swamped. Most of you are clueless about it. Why? Because the media in the US was a little more responsible with the reporting. People, regardless of their political ideology or religious ideology came together as one, to HELP EACH OTHER. They didn’t make it a Republican Vs Democrat issue. Communities pitched in, they understood the limitations of the government, the healthcare sectors which included pharmaceutical industries. Healthcare workers weren’t beaten up because someone’s loved ones died, healthcare workers weren’t thrown out of their apartment complexes because residents feared these workers would spread COVID. Hospital properties werent destroyed because someone’s loved one died. People were thankful, they tried to boost our morale by sending us random thank you notes, memorabilia, treats. Many corporates sponsored food for healthcare providers. We didn’t have people black marketing essential medicines, oxygen cylinders. We didn’t and don’t have people trying to make an extra buck at the cost of other people’s lives. There is still some integrity, humanity and compassion remaining in general public in the USA. Did the government ask communities to do it? Did the healthcare workers ask for any of it? NO. It was completely voluntary, people realised the importance of WORKING TOGETHER RESPONSIBLY to keep America safe. Why am I talking about America? Because some of YOU are busy shaming India and asking me to compare it with America. So tell me, when are YOU ALL going to come together to help keep India safe? https://www.facebook.com/146290406221646/posts/930922974425048/ D Readers' Contribution The Two Menons: V Babusenan Thiruvananthapuram As there are many Menons worth describing, I hasten to clarify that I have in mind one Menon who was unique as a diplomat and another an anti- diplomat (in the restricted sense of dealing with people) and yet great, perhaps greater. Both of them the readers know very well. The former is K.P.S.Menon, Sr. and the latter V.K.Krishna Menon who could not claim that kind of seniority as he chose to remain single. Born to a successful lawyer in Kottayam, Kerala ,KPS had an excellent educational record and career, brightened throughout by the smile of Dame Luck. A first at Oxford, first in the ICS examination, the first Indian to be taken into the Foreign and Political Department of the Govt of India, the first Ambassador of India to China, the first Foreign Secretary of Independent India, the first long-serving envoy to Soviet Russia (he served for nine years)! These were the feathers in his cap. As for the part played by luck, he himself cited many examples of which one related to his school days. Menon was very weak in mathematics . There used to be a separate minimum for mathematics to pass the matriculation examination. From the year in which he appeared for the examination, this minimum requirement was abandoned. He passed the exam with flying colours and the marks he scored for Maths were a mere19%! Menon, as a diplomat and bureaucrat, was admired by all. He was incapable of creating enemies. As a writer in English, he was excellent. As a speaker, he seldom raised his voice.The humour that emanated from his speeches was of a delightful kind. He had the rare gift of sending his listeners to peals of laughter without himself showing on his face even a flicker of a smile. The other Menon, that is, V K Krishna Menon, of the same age group ( he was only two years senior in age) was equally brilliant and more dynamic. Being the best student of Harold Laski of the famous London School of Economics, Menon's dynamism was of a different kind and this he fully utilized for a particular type of work which had great relevance in our freedom struggle. It will not be correct to assume that we got freedom entirely because of our valiant fight in India. We must feel obliged to Menon and his India League for their excellent work done in England to bring about an attitudinal change of British minds in favour of giving freedom to India. It was Menon's untiring devotion to this noble cause that enlisted the cooperation of such worthies as Bertrand Russell, Harold Laski ,Anuerin Bevan, Fenner Brokway, Kingsley Martin, Michael Foot, et al. Russell was the first president of the India League. Menon was intensely disliked in the West on account of his abrasiveness. He was a very powerful speaker. His speeches in chaste queen's English were like tornadoes for the opponents. He was, no doubt, temperamental, but his abrasiveness was mostly assumed as a strategy to counter the hauteur of the British and the Americans. They hated him, yet listened to him. During the pretty long period of his presence in the UN as head of the Indian team, he made several valuable suggestions which, though grudgingly accepted by many,proved to boost the relevance of the organisation. Menon was behind the well -known non-alignment policy of Prime Minister Nehru.He was Nehru's confidant.Those who disliked Nehru disliked him more and he met his Waterloo in the Chinese debacle in1962 when he was the defence minister.It is,however,to be admitted that he had brought about salutary reforms in the set-up of the armed forces. The two Menons were like copper wires connected to the two ends of a battery.When their loose ends are brought close,they spit fire.It happened once when both of them were members in the delegation to the UN led by Mrs.Vijayalakshmi Pandit.K.P.S found V.K.K insufferable and a quarrel erupted between them.Nehru pacified the former and, since then ,both maintained a distance sufficient to keep the mutual respect intact.Suffice to say that both these wonderful persons rendered invaluable service to the nation in their own way. When Krishna Menon died,Prime Minister Indira Gandhi aptly compared him to an extinct volcano. E From here and there 1) Book Review: Three Men in a Boat https://aestheticblasphemy.com/blog/book-reviews/fiction/three-men-in-a-boat-book-review/476 Excerpts: "Marlow is one of the pleasantest river centres I know of. It is a bustling, lively little town; not very picturesque on the whole, it is true, but there are many quaint nooks and corners to be found in it, nevertheless - standing arches in the shattered bridge of Time, over which our fancy travels back to the days when Marlow Manor owned Saxon Algar for its lord, ere conquering William seized it to give to Queen Matilda, ere it passed to the Earls of Warwick or to worldly-wise Lord Paget, the councillor of four successive sovereigns. There is a lovely country round about it, too, if, after boating you are fond of a walk, while the river itself is at its best here. Down to Cookham, past the Quarry Woods and the meadows, is a lovely reach. Dear old Quarry Woods!... From Marlow up to Sonning is even fairer yet. Grand old Bisham Abbey, whose stone walls have rung to the shouts of the Knights Templars, and which, at one time, was the home of Anne of Cleves and at another of Queen Elizabeth, is passed on the right bank just half a mile above Marlow Bridge." 2) Vishnu Sahasranamam: Context and Content https://vak1969.com/2020/09/11/vishnu-sahasranamam-context-learning-benefits/amp/ Benefits Firstly it's an energiser. The Mantra is like a Pranayam exercise and after chanting it you feel energised. Each word, when uttered correctly generates energy that can be felt within. This energy stimulates the tiniest cells of the body and boosts our concentration power. Yoga, Mantras & Stotras are a great way to stay healthy and calm. A detailed explanation of the benefits of chanting Vishnu Sahasranam is in the link : (Explanation of Phala Shruti & Benefits of Chanting Vishnu Sahasranam by Shankara & Prasara Bhattar) F Leisure 1) Pandemic of fun, or Vice Versa* Pandemic Laughter . . ꧁• If you see me leaving this group, please add me again. It's just that I’m so desperate to go out ! ! ꧁• Never in my wildest dreams have I imagined myself entering a bank, wearing a mask, and asking for money . . ꧁• Never thought my hands would one day consume more alcohol than my liver ... ever ! ! ꧁• Quarantine seems like a Netflix series: just when you think it's over, they release the next season. ꧁• I’m starting to like this mask thing. I went to the supermarket yesterday and two people that I owe money to didn’t recognize me . . ꧁• Those complaining 2020 didn’t have enough holidays, what now ? ! ꧁• I need to social distance myself from my fridge ; I tested positive for excess weight ! ! ꧁• I’m not planning on adding 2020 to my age. I didn’t even use it ! ! ꧁• We want to publicly apologize to the year 2019 for all the bad things we said about it . . ꧁• To all the ladies who were praying for their husbands to spend more time with them, how are you doing ? ꧁• My washing machine only accepts pyjamas these days. I put in a pair of jeans and a message popped up : “ Stay Home . . Laughter Is The Best Remedy." *Received from T J Kurup Thiruvanantapuram 2) Multilingual puns* Some new some old ```When I saw a snake for the first time, I was सर्पrised. My Urdu is behtar than your English. I wanted to marry a Photo Journalist, par PAPARAZZI nahi hue. Why is vegetarian food not very popular? Simply because it doesn’t have मांस appeal. Ghosts have their own ATMA-SPHERE. Who called it family planning and not जनration? People with paunch want to show that they have a well 'तोंड (toned) body. I had sore throat once. It took me few vicks to recover.. God never tasted any cough syrup, because khuda-na-khasta. Last night I had an extra spicy garlic chutney. This morning I learnt my lehsun. Visited a dentist named Simran. She asked "where are you feeling the pain?" Me: Jaw Simran Jaw I really don't care who takes bath daily. It स्नान of my business. "Kya tujhe hammer se darr lagta hai?" "Ha-thodasa." Come on Pat-Anjali What Ayurveding for ?``` *Received from Shivaram Shetty Mumbai G Quotes about truth https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/truth-quotes Like: It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar." -Jerome K Jerome (Jerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat. Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat, and several other novels) H Interaction R Jayakumar Mumbai Perils of indifference The above is an interesting inclusion in today's (May 20) Collage. It is a speech (edited version) delivered at White House in 1999 by Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a Holocaust Survivor. Mr Wiesel is wondering whether, in today's world being indifferent has become a philosophy, a virtue or is it normal to be indifferent when the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals. There is so much of violence and suffering in the world and yet there is so much of indifference of feelings among the people. He says that indifference may be tempting and seductive because it is easier to look away when the neighbour is suffering. When we are indifferent we view our neighbour as meaningless and of no consequence. He has cited many happenings around the world in the last and present centuries such as wars, tyrannical rulers, persecutions, ethnic cleansing etc which are inhuman but many are indifferent in their response. Being indifferent is also being inhuman. He rightly says that being indifferent is more dangerous than being angry or hating others. If one shows his anger or hatred to another at least he responds. But being indifferent is not showing any response.... I think many of us prefer to be indifferent because we don't want to become a victim of being different, we are afraid of the ruthlessness of authorities. Today amidst this devastating pandemic no one can say that I don't know any of my neighbour who is suffering. There any those who are sensitive and responding to the horrific situation. Doctors and nurses treating Covid patients work in stressful condition. Some have lost their lives for doing so. A municipal worker who came forward to bury more than 250 Covid victims himself died of Covid few days back. Film stars and religious and social groups are responding with free medical and financial aids. They also face criticism for doing this because it is not theirs but government's responsibility. There are many individuals distributing free meals not because they feed the poor but because many have lost their jobs and business. Old and retired people like us what can we do, are we indifferent to what is going around? It is not easy for us to go out and do some voluntary service, but we can donate money if we come across a needy person to meet medical or funeral expenses. I voluntarily phone and ask known distressed persons if they need financial help. But mostly they are reluctant to accept because they are shy. Very few come forward to accept help. If we remain indifferent we are betraying our own conscience. The number of people who are sensitive to the needs of others is few. It is better to be one of them. R Jayakumar

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