Warrier's Collage on Thursday July 7, 2022
Welcome To
Warrier's COLLAGE
On
Thursday
July 7, 2022
🙏
On the seashore
https://youtu.be/vPhg6sc1Mk4
Significance of OM
https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/significance-of-om
Good Morning 🌄
A quiet day. I'm listening!
Nice Day
M G Warrier
M 134
A
Messages /Responses
1) V Babusenan
M T Vasudevan Nair
M T Vasudevan Nair, one of the great internationally known writers in Malayalam, is entering the 90th year of his life on the 15th July this year. Destiny wanted that way. Otherwise, he would have ceased to exist in his mother's womb itself. He miraculously survived the village doctor's medicines to abort him as his poor mother was too weak to endure a fourth pregnancy. But he had to pay the price for Destiny's stubbornness. Like the famous Dr Samuel Johnson, he was born 'almost dead' and suffered ill-health for many years.
MT was born in a remote village in the north-west of the present Palakkad district of Kerala in a poor middle-class family. He started loving poetry as a small boy. His inspiration came from his three elder brothers. His hero was Changampuzha. What amazed him was how these poets created magic by arranging words already familiar to him.
He tried to write poems but luckily found soon that it was not his cup of tea. But the secret of words he learned through the reading of the works of the great poets served him well when he switched over to short stories. On the threshold of twenty, he secured first prize for Malayalam short story writing in an international competition conducted by the New York Herald Tribune.
The1950s in Malayalam literature saw two pathbreaking novels. The first one wasThakazhi's 'Chemmeen' with the fisherfolk's lives as its background. Its theme was built around their belief that the mother sea will protect the seamen as long as their wives on the shore are devoted to them. The second novel 'Nalukettu', that appeared two years later, told in inimitable prose the disintegration of the matriarchal family system in Kerala. Nalukettu means 'ancestral house'. The novelist was young Vasudevan Nair who was only 23 at that time and it was his first novel. It fetched him an award from the Kerala Sahitya Academy. He wrote two more novels in that genre. As for novels, his magnum opus was 'Randaam Oozham'(The Second Turn) wherein he tells the story of the epic Mahabharata from the point of view of Bheemasena.
More short stories than novels flowed from his blessed pen. His Midas touch extended to the film field too. He directed four Malayalam films and wrote screenplay for over fifty. All these bore the stamp of his exceptional personality.
MT won national award for the best screen play four times and, at the state level, the prestigious J C Daniel award for life time achievement in Malayalam cinema. Like the late ONV Kurup in the realm of poetry, all conceivable awards, including the Jnanapeetam, came in his way. The nation honoured him with a Padmabhooshan in 2005.
As A S Raman or Khushwant Singh to The Illustrated Weekly of India and Russi Karanjia to The Blitz, was MT to the very popular Malayalam weekly Mathrubhumi. He was at its helm for many years.
His initials MT stand for what is just opposite to the man himself!
In his speech accepting the Jnanapeetam award, MT said :
"The village, that is very well
known to me, forms the background of most of my writings. The river that flows through it is my blood stream. The village gave me sounds, images and words. Like the seasonal changes in the village, the changes in human nature always attract me. So are the complexities of man's disposition. A person, dubbed as cruel, suddenly opens his kind heart and astounds us. Another person, believed all along to be an embodiment of goodness, quite unexpectedly exposes his Vampire teeth. The perennial wonder, that is man, always disturbs our minds."
We, the readers of The Collage, wish you, dear MT, Aayuraarogyasoukhyam for one more decade!
2) Media Response
July 6, 2022
Strengthening cooperatives
This refers to the article "Strengthening cooperatives" (The Hindu Business Line, July 6). The author has brought out the advantages available to cooperatives after central government extended positive support to the sector with the creation of a new ministry of cooperation in Delhi.
The initiatives in speeding up computerization at primary level and introduction of Government e-Marketplace-Special Purpose Vehicle (GeM-SPV) will go a long way in solving several technical and logistics issues now being faced by cooperatives at all levels.
Cooperatives on their part will have to do a lot of introspection and accept some self-discipline to reap benefits from these measures taken by the government.
While it would be too much to ask them to depoliticise their management a move towards cleansing managements by arriving at a consensus and self-imposing regulatory discipline necessary for survival and growth is the need of the hour. There are working models already in existence in states like Kerala to follow.
M G Warrier
Mumbai
Published on July 7, 2022 :
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article65608882.ece
3) Vathsala Jayaraman
Bertrand Russell
While talking about Bertrand Russel his views about God and Religion surely occupy our mind Russell sums up his views about religion quite plainly:
“My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard
it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race”
Continued at H1
4) Stress Management
https://www.success.com/19-calming-quotes-to-help-you-stress-less/
“There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.” —James Carroll
James Jordan was born in Japan, but raised in England. He is a very versatile London-based North American voice over artist with gravitas and brio, with a range from New York Mobster, California cool to Texas cowboy. He is also a highly successful narrator of many documentaries for the History and Discovery Channel.
5) Scrambled Monologues: M G Warrier
SCRAMBLED MONOLOGUES: Random Essays on Life's Journey https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07H26N2DH/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_D76XVCB8YSJ60PXXM88H
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Today's Poem : Franklin Misquith
Reach out to those who are in need,
You'll be sowing the right seed,
The rich are filled with greed,
To Him they pay no heed,
The poor they do not feed,
Though daily for food they plead,
The haves should take the lead,
Bread for the needy they should daily knead,
Daily the Holy Rosary I pray bead by bead,
He pays heed to my every need,
I help kids to learn how to read,
And that evil from their hearts they should weed,
Then as they grow up they'll not waver like a reed,
To daily perform at least one good deed,
Then they will in every way prosper indeed.
C
Wonderful 108 : Vathsala Jayaraman
108 sidaru thengai, 108 kozhukkattai, 108 pradakshinas etc are normally the vows taken for fulfillment of some
of our objectives. Though God is not enamoured of whatever we offer, there appears to be some significance
with this wonderful number 108, a multiple of 9, which again
is mathematically, astronomically and astrologically significant.
We are living in this earth , one among the planets always revolving , under a magic spell of forces. There is a mathematical discipline behind.
1)27 nakshatras & 4 paadams
2)12 constellations and 9 arc segments
3)The diameter of sun is 108 times that of the earth
4)the distance between moon and earth is 108 times of the moon's diameter
5)the distance between sun & earth is 108 times the sun's diameter.
In Hinduism the number is very significant. There are 108 Upanishads-10 Rig, 50 Yajur,16 Sama and 32 for Atharva Veda.
Dance karanas-108, Archana naamavalis-108, Divya kshetras-108, No of Gopis-108, water springs in Mukthinath-108
Medically 108 energy lines are supposed to form Heart Chakra and 108 marmasthanas in the subtle body.
Mathematically, the added value of the digits is 9.
(1x1)x(2x2)x(3x3x3) = 108
1 represents the Ultimate Intelligence, or God or Truth
0 represents the Aakash
8 represents the prapancha pervading all 8 directions.
In one minute we breathe nearly 15 times, in one hour 900 times, in 12 hrs 10800 times.
12 hrs are spent in sleep & other biological needs.
The other 12 hrs when we work with the energy given by God, we breathe 10800 times, again a multiple of 108.
In the famous KATAPAYADI number system the word "Brahma" has the number-3285 totalling to 9. In the same
system the word JAYA or victory is represented by the number 18, an auspicious number. we are aware that
there are 18 vidyas, 18 puranas, 18 Sabarimala steps, 18 days of Mahabharata war and 18 chapters of Gita
all revolving round number 9
In Tibetan Buddhism there are 108 sins.
In Japan , new year starts with chiming of 108 bells, each representing a temptation. Sikhs use a mala of wool containing 108 knots
I have studied somewhere that in Islam 108 is used to refer to God.
In other religions also 108 may be of great significance.
There are nine dwaras, three gunas (satvam rajas and Tamas)
and four antahkaranas(mind, intellect,ego and memory)-9x3x4=108
Every action of ours in this world, whether biological, physical, mental, intellectual or spiritual do take place only
with their support.
Ironically our Government has chosen this number 108 as Medical Emergency for ambulance etc
108 is the binding force creating harmony between the worldly life, natural forces and spiritual power. Just because we don't understand these facts, they cannot be set aside as untruth. The future generation scientists, and astronomers , by their relentless research, will be able to prove the facts with scientific evidence.
Vathsala Jayaraman
D
Living Will : S W Fadnawis
My co-brother died last week
at the ripe age of 89 after a protracted illness, of multi organ failure. For a couple of years he was bound to bed and totally dependent on others for his daily chores including all physical needs. The children out of love for him attended to him in all possible ways taking good care during the last two years. Ultimately, after struggling for 10 days he breathed his last.
I have been thinking for the last so many days about this last stage of human life.
Recently, in Collage, I have read many posts relating to old age, post retired life, how to spend days while growing old etc. I don't know whether we have discussed it before but I am curious and interested in the concept of living will.The idea of Euthanasia is being discussed in our country and elsewhere for long. It was in 2018 that Supreme Cout, in all its wisdom agreed to the concept of living will and layed down the rules leaving it to Parliament to convert it into law. Whatever be the reasons, it has not been done so far and the efforts of people desiring to register such will and also some forums have failed. With all the safeguards in place I think this will be a very useful legislation and make death less painful for the maker of the will and the people concerned.
In this connection I went through some information about living and assisted will and came across a very good write up in Times of India of February 22, 2021 :
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-registering-a-living-will-is-an-arduous-task-despite-sc-guidelines/articleshow/81144053.cms
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Faith
https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1544390092340338688?s=20&t=XEIH7Eld5HzmyguZoasT5A
Unity in Diversity - 304
नालि इआणे दोसती कदे न आवै रासि
जेहा जाणै तेहो वरतै वेखहु को निरजासि
Friendship with an immature person is never successful
An immature can only conduct as such based on limited understanding
(generally, mind is immature)
Guru Angad, Asa, 474, SGGS
F
Money Jokes
https://www.rd.com/jokes/money/
G
Quotes on Living Will
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/michael_schiavo_221054
It's important
Make a living will. Talk about it. Death is going to happen to everybody. Write it down. Even if you write it on a piece of paper at home and have your family witness it, you need to write it down.
Michael Schiavo
H
Continued from A3
According to Russell, not only are most religious
beliefs intellectually and morally pernicious, the religious
point of view itself “is a conception quite unworthy of free men”).
Throughout his life, Russell thus put significant effort into
opposing religious ideas and institutions of all kinds..
Russell’s discussions about religion fall largely into four
categories: his criticisms of arguments favouring the existence
of God;
his observation that religion has historically served to
impede the advancement of knowledge;
his observation that religion has regularly advanced
theories of morality that are more harmful than good;
and his analysis of religion, not simply as a body of belief
but as a mode of feeling.
The result was twofold:
first, that many people came to understand religion as a subject
about which they were entitled to develop their own
beliefs and views;
second, that arguments from ecclesiastical authority
suddenly became less formidable and less influential
than they had been for centuries. Russell himself reports
that he received the Nobel award primarily for his
anti-religious book, Marriage and Morals .
If everything must have a cause, then God must
have a cause. If everything must have a creator,
then God must have a creator. Alternatively, if God can exist without a cause, then it is just as likely that the world can exist without a cause.
The world, we are told, was created by a God who is both good and omnipotent. Before He created the world
He foresaw all the pain and misery that it would
contain; If God knew in advance the sins of which man would be guilty, He was clearly responsible
for all the consequences of those sins when He decided to create man.
The argument that the complexity and purpose we find in the world shows that there must have been a creator, Russell points out that “since the time of Darwin we understand much better
why living creatures are adapted to their environment.
It is not that their environment was made to be suitable
to them, but that they grew to be suitable to it, and that
is the basis of adaption.
Of course, we might then feel compelled to suggest the
existence of a superior deity, one who ordered the God
who created world to act as he did, but this option will
be of no value to the traditional theist. There is also
“the line that some of the gnostics took up – a line which
I often thought was a very plausible one – that as a matter of fact this world that we know was made by the devil at a
moment when God was not looking,” but again, this is not the kind of option that would give comfort to the traditional theist.
The argument that God is needed to bring justice to the world, to ensure that at the end of time the scales of justice have been balanced, Russell asks what evidence we have that such
remediation is ever going to occur. “In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of
those is the more annoying; but if you are going to have justice in the universe as a whole you have to suppose a future life to
redress the balance of life here on earth. So they say that there must be a God, and there must be heaven and hell in order that in the long run there may be justice”
Underlying Russell’s writings on religion was also his observation that religion is not simply a body of doctrine but also a vehicle for the expression of emotion.
Societies as well as individuals, says Russell, need to choose whether the good life is one that is guided by honest inquiry and the weighing of evidence, or by the familiarity of superstition and the comforts of religion.
Vathsala Jayaraman
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