Warrier's Collage on Sunday December 4, 2022
Welcome To
Warrier's COLLAGE
On
Sunday
December 4, 2022
1) A talk on Shankaracharya : Sarvapriyananda
https://youtu.be/u_fHrjl0m3I
(In New York two years ago)
2) Freedom from fear :
https://youtu.be/BYSVYQePasg
3) Branding and marketing India : M G Warrier
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/branding-and-marketing-india-47628/
Institutions and inventions are first born in the minds of individuals. No one can predict where and when the spark needed to trigger the initiation of the right action needed to germinate the seed of imagination will get noticed by a great soul like Vivekananda.
Let’s make a beginning by talking about this.
4) Poetry* reading : Resmi D/o V Reverndran
https://youtu.be/vYPUjutgTnw
*Know More about the poet :
https://allpoetry.com/Rainer-Maria-Rilke
Good Morning 🙏
Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during the week ending Saturday December 10, 2022. Ayurarogyasaukhyam 🙏 and Best Wishes to all readers.
I might have shared the following story with some of you earlier. For others* :
During early 1980's, a colleague in NABARD Thiruvananthapuram used to do face reading and share two predictions with one individual everyday. One day he didn't get any client and called me to his cabin. I said I was not interested in spending time with him on predictions. He said he won't predict anything but on the basis of what he felt looking at me, share his thoughts in general. I had to agree. These are the two things he (he is no more RIP) told me :
1) Your tongue is genetically harsh. This, to your disadvantage, others will exploit. Always be on guard.
2) There's a likelihood of anything you say, coming true. You'll say I'm telling you a universal truth. Now listen carefully : So avoid talking negative things. Especially about those near and dear to you.
Shri Venkataraman was some 10 years elder to me and I always remember him for this advice. I'm not sure how far I could follow.
*Last week I remembered this and shared in a family group. Thought no harm in sharing here.
Regards 🙏
M G Warrier
M 134
A
Messages/Responses
1) T V Sumangala Thrissur
Shared a poem by Kamala Das
https://youtu.be/jPOxSmEBNbs
2) T N C Rangarajan
Shared a link
Memory Skills
bigthink.com
9 tactics to build a stronger memory and mind
Lisa Genova
8–10 minutes
It may not feel like it when you can’t find your phone or “lose” your sunglasses sitting atop your head, but your memory is an amazing ability — and one we fiercely want to protect. So it’s little wonder that any blips or blank spaces can send us spiraling into concern.
Some recall issues here and there are normal, says neuroscientist and author Lisa Genova, and not every lapse means looming problems. (And don’t worry, forgetting names is a surprisingly easy thing for our brains to do!) But, Genova says that there are ways that we can improve our memory, can increase resilience and recall, and be more comfortable with ourselves and our minds.
Tactics to improve your memory include making lists, getting Google’s help, giving yourself pop quizzes, meditating, and simply paying more attention to things.
LISA GENOVA: People are worried about their memory. If you're forgetting to show up for your four o'clock meeting, or you forgot the actor who played Tony Soprano in the HBO series 'The Sopranos.' "Can't remember that guy's name, what is it?" A lot of us tend to blame ourselves. This absent-mindedness is a sign of mental weakness, or a failing memory, or a lack of character, but 99% of forgetting that happens to all of us, is normal. So there are things that we can do to be less afraid, less panicked, to have a better relationship with our memory today- because forgetting is a normal part of being human. My name is Lisa Genova. I am an author and neuroscientist. The name of my book is "Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting."
So how do we reinforce our memories? How do we make our memories stronger, resilient to time, so that we can recall them decades later? The first essential ingredient in creating a memory that's going to last longer than this present moment is attention. If I put my glasses down and don't give it a moment's attention to notice where I've put this, I can't remember where they are because I never formed that memory to begin with. Your brain will never remember what you don't pay attention to.
Chronic stress is really bad for our memory. Stress hormones mobilize your brain and body to respond, to fight, to flee, to react quickly- not to think. Stress is meant to be an acute, quick, on and off phenomenon. So what happens in your brain and body if you're exposed to chronic, unrelenting stress, and how does that affect your memory? Under chronic stress, your body will just keep dumping adrenaline and cortisol, and it can't shut off. This is bad for memory. You are actually shrinking your hippocampus- the part of your brain that's essential for forming consciously-held memories is going to be smaller. You'll be inhibiting 'neurogenesis,' the birth of new neurons. The very good news about all of this, because I've probably just scared everyone, is that there are things that we can do to combat stress. This is where things like yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and exercise come into play. All of these have been shown to restore the size of people's hippocampus who have been chronically stressed.
A quick word on meditation: A lot of people are intimidated by meditation. They sort of know that this is probably good for them in lots of ways, but maybe don't know how to do it. Here's a nine-second meditation to help restore your cortisol levels, and to help save your hippocampus and your ability to remember. Close your eyes if you can. Breathe in through your nose to the count of four. Hold it for a second, and then breathe out through your nose to the count of four. And notice how you feel. Here's what's going on: Stress response causes you to breathe like this- By breathing slowly in and out through your nose, you are telling your brain and body that you are safe.
We also wanna get enough sleep. Sleep is not a state of doing nothing where you're unconscious and it's a waste of time. You're very biologically busy while you sleep, and there are a number of super-important things that are going on in your brain with respect to memory. For example, if I got a horrible night's sleep last night, I'm gonna wake up today and my frontal lobe is gonna have a hard time dragging itself to its day job- and one of its most important jobs is paying attention. And if I can't pay attention to what's going on today, what am I not gonna be able to do well today? Form new memories. Also, your hippocampus consolidates the information you're learning into a lasting memory that you can consciously retrieve while you sleep. So what happens if you don't get enough sleep? Your hippocampus might not have had enough time to do the job, and so your memories from what happened yesterday and the stuff you learned yesterday, might not be fully formed today, or they might not be formed at all.
Caffeine is actually good for memory, because caffeine increases your attention. So anything that's an attention booster is gonna be a memory booster. We know that sleep is super important for forming memories, so caffeine's good for memory. You just wanna be careful that it's not compromising your sleep.
Our brains are not designed to remember people's names. These are abstract concepts. They live in neurological cul-de-sacs. Ultimately, there's only one way into that house that lives at the end of that street, and there's no other way to get there. So can we supply more associations to the person's name to give us a chance? In psychology, this is called the 'Baker-Baker Paradox.' If I'm trying to remember your name and your name is Mr. Baker, that's really tough for me to remember- abstract concept. But if I were asked to remember the word "baker," I can picture him wearing an apron, and he's got flour on his face and, "Oh, I remember the bakery I used to love as a kid and we used to get danishes there on Sundays." So now I've got all of these associations in my brain, attaching to that word "baker," and gives me a chance to hook into it.
For all of these memories, they benefit from repetition. The more we repeat, the more we practice, the more we rehearse a memory, we are strengthening those neural connections, making that neural circuit stronger, and more likely to be fully retrieved. One of the ways that we can repeat a memory is by writing it down. If I've experienced a certain number of things today, and I keep a journal- what I've chosen to write down will become a stronger, more reinforced memory in my brain. I will also have the opportunity to revisit that memory by reading it later. So many people come up to me, so worried, saying, "If I don't write what I need to do later down, I'm gonna forget to do it. That's gotta mean I'm getting Alzheimer's." And I tell all of them, "No, it's your prospective memory. It's terrible. It's not cheating to write it down. It's actually good practice." Airline pilots do not rely on their brains and their prospective memories to remember to lower the wheels before landing the plane. They outsource the job to a to-do list, a checklist. We should all write it down, put it in your phones, put it in your calendar alerts, make to-do lists. If you wanna remember to pick up milk at the grocery store, write it down.
Another way to better remember this information has to do with self-testing. If I'm trying to consolidate something into memory, and I'm only putting the information in, I'm traveling one way on the neurons. If I then try to recall the information, I'm pulling the information out- now I'm going the other way. Going over those circuits in both directions will help reinforce and make that memory stronger.
Okay, having a word stuck on the tip of your tongue is a normal glitch in memory retrieval. It's just a byproduct of how our brains are organized. So looking up a word, Googling a word that's on the tip of your tongue isn't cheating. It will not cause digital amnesia. It will not make your memory weaker in any way. It frees you up. We can Google anything that we can't remember in a moment's notice, and then use that information to continue thinking, to continue the conversation, to learn more. You have my permission to Google it and look it up.
What I would love for you to take away from all of this is that your memory is amazing. It is limitless in what it's capable of remembering if you supply it with the right kind of information, if you supply it with the right kind of tools and associations. And it's wildly imperfect, and that's just the price of owning a human brain. Forgetting is a normal part of being human.
B
Sunday Collage : V T Panchapagesan
AVADHUTA. WITH 24 TEACHINGS ABOUT TRUE NATURE OF THE ULTIMATE REALITY.
DEATH ASKED LIFE, WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE YOU?
And People HATE, ME.
Because I tell Beautiful LIES,
Whereas You tell PAINFUL TRUTH.
FAITH is like a cord that carries the power from the source to the appliance.
God has unlimited power. But to tap in to that power we need a line through 24 teachings of a realized soul, CALLED AVADHUT :
He is a Jeevanmukta who gives his insight to others and teaches the following 24 things through various examples listed below :
1 Mother Earth.
Forbearance, Joy of sharing and universal Love.
2 Air.
To be contented with the minimum requirement to sustenance.
3 Sky
To remain unattached.
4 Water
Sanctify the world.
5 Fire
Accept what is offered
6 Moon
Transformation of the body does not
affect the Atman.
7 Sun
Atman is Non-dual.
8 Ocean
Not to affect by Gas or loss.
9 Pigeon
Birds learned not to lose myself being engrossed
In family life forgetful of the supreme goal of life.
10 Python
Perfectly unconcerned about the needs of the body.
11 Moth
Learned not to trust my eyes which are carried away by attraction.
12 Bee
To receive alms little by little and just enough for a time and not to cultivate the habit of hoarding.
13 Elephant
Learned to avoid women attracted by She elephant.
14 Honey gatherers
It is unsafe to hoard Wealth of any kind.
15 Deer
Not to be deceived by Sound pleasing to the ear.
16.Fish
To keep the organ of Taste under perfect control.
17 Pingala courtesan
To be desirers to Peace and Happiness
18 Osprey
High road to happiness lies in giving up of all acquisitions…
19 Infant
One is carefree ——he can be happy always.
20 Maiden
To wander alone keeping company with none but the SELF
21 Arrow maker
Single minded devotion on The Lord.
22 Serpent
To live happily in houses built by others or in caves.
23 Spider
How Creation, Preservation and Destruction of the Universe proceed
From the comprehensible Lord as mere Sport.
24 Brnga(King of wasps)
It is possible for a higher SOUL to attain to the State of BRAHMAN, GODHEAD
By constant meditation on The Supreme Lord.
🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
V T Panchapagesan
C
Current Affairs
1) Dharavi Redevelopment
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/adani-group-dharavi-redevelopment-bid-long-delayed-project-mumbai-8296577/
2) The Other Side Development
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-behind-the-beautiful-forevers-by-katherine-boo/2012/01/26/gIQA848t4Q_story.h
D
Collage Poetry
https://allpoetry.com/Rainer-Maria-Rilke
Excerpts :
Put Out My Eyes : Rainer Maria Rilke
Put out my eyes, and I can see you still,
Slam my ears too, and I can hear you yet;
And without any feet can go to you;
And tongueless, I can conjure you at will.
Break off my arms, I shall take hold of you
And grasp you with my heart as with a hand;
Arrest my heart, my brain will beat as true;
And if you set this brain of mine afire,
Then on my blood-stream I yet will carry you.
E
Media Response : M G Warrier
November 30, 2022
Pension as deferred wage*
This refers to your editorial "Losing proposition" (The Hindu Business Line, November 30). The backdoor introduction of NPS in December 2003 (effective January 1, 2004) without deliberations in legislatures or any effort to take the affected employees into confidence are to be primarily blamed for many of the incurable ills the present New Pension System is suffering from.
There's a genetic aversion for all stakeholders to reconcile to the universal truth that post-retirement living costs should be an integral ingredient of real wages.
The abrupt and prospective discontinuance of defined benefit pension scheme for central government employees (other than Defence Personnel) was a hotchpotch ad-hoc measure to bypass the need to initiate action to create a pension fund. The inherent inadequacies and glaring omissions in the original NPS is haunting central government and state governments and Public Sector organizations on which the scheme was thrusted upon by coercion.
The earlier the central government takes a realistic view and reviews the whole issue in a comprehensive manner, the better for the country. Delay will demoralise the workforce across sectors taking the employee morale to an irretrievable low. No forecast on the impact of such a delay on economic growth and productivity.
M G Warrier
Mumbai
*Published on December 1, 2022 :
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/letters/
2) Cooperative banks
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-editor/article66216052.ece
Cooperative banks
This refers to ‘RBI revises regulatory framework for UCBs’ (December 2). This is a welcome move. With multiple controls and political DNA, cooperative banks in general are struggling to readjust to modern realities. Their relevance in rural and semi-urban India is increasing, as the high-tech modern banks are happy to continue with their urban bias.
State/district cooperative banks and primary credit societies are still to get the attention they deserve from the banking regulator.
MG Warrier
Mumbai
F
Collage Controversy : Kautilya's Arthashastra*
https://madrascourier.com/books-and-films/the-casteism-embedded-in-kautilyas-arthashastra/
*Madras Courier
G
Collage Sunday Essay : Vathsala Jayaraman Chennai
Spiritual Media
Screen time determines how productive our life is nowadays!
iPhone provides weekly report about our screen time
with a detailed breakdown of how and when we spent time in social media. But it is critical for us to keep track of what we think, what we say and
what we act daily to measure how much we transform ourselves into a spiritual being. Unfortunately, most
teachings are abstruse as they are written in languages unfamiliar to us and the effect of those invaluable teachings get lost in the translation. Practically we rely on other's opinion and shape up our lives. Some
of the invaluable practical measures can be easily
accomplished through simple steps :
1) Facebook -What is a Facebook? It is record of how
we build our thoughts, words and actions building a world that we perceive. 100% of one's character
is built through these activities. Instead of looking for maximum number of likes (one should remain demure)
one should use these activities for own personality development. The objective is to transform these
activities into an ethereal ones and should result in
exhilaration as opposed to glamorous exhibition of pomp
and show. We need to remember that this Facebook
is available in our memories and is reviewed automatically
when we encounter the end of life. However, one need
not wait for it and can review it as often as possible
during one’s lifetime.
2) Google -
No research is carried out without a proper
investigation and information gathering. When one writes
his own Facebook, one might encounter languor and lassitude
and may have to refer to how it is being done. It is imperative the scriptures are written with a code for
right-living and one can always refer them and if they
are difficult to comprehend, one should use a proper
Guru who has the ability to pave the road to right-living.
3) Instagram – This is related to Google above.
Besides listening and assimilating rich knowledge shared by the Guru, one also need to have a proper
method to instantly communicate with the divinity inside of each one of us. This can be done through
meditation, prayer, and other methods that would
get to the core of each life. Sometimes, revelations
happen when one is engrossed into the nature.
This communication must be consistent and straight from the heart and with a faith that would help us to get the answers we are looking for. Instant and direct communication in a way, is a direct perception
of the truth and what is revealed is more powerful and makes one effervescent and ebullient.
4) WhatsApp - What is happening inside is as important
as what is perceived by us every day. All the information coming from various people around us needs to be
reviewed with sincerity and honesty to review what improvement one can make to one's character. That
becomes an input into changing our thoughts, words, and actions and eventually our own character. All feedback from outside world is perception by others and the real
feedback comes from the conscience through proper
method of introspection. What is happening inside
and how one feels is best known only to him only.
5) Twitter - The mind is filled with constant banter and mostly reflecting the emotions inside of us.
There are 3 aspect to everything we encounter in our
lives and they are receipt, reaction and response.
We can choose what to receive and how to respond
through internal control systems. But more importantly,
one needs to learn how to control the reactions inside
of oneself as most of the time, the mind is engaged in constant chatter. Discriminating them, direct them
to where they belong and acting on general well-being
of the mind is essential. Mind is the cause of man's
trouble when it is also the solution for the salvation of the man. How we manage these twits determine
how we make our life rejuvenated.
Normally we never think of our internal spirituality in
terms of social media components that are so
integral to our external lives. It's also a neat way to talk about the topic with young adults and soon to be adults.
It is nice connecting mundane chaotic outside Maya
world to superior inner world. Delighted indeed with analogy “media on line"; and I wished the essay
also included the IVth Estate - The press & the FM Radio.
A digression as my mind goes to
Harold Robbins who in one of his novels describe the
dedicated radio stations for spreading christianity and offer various spiritual services for those who are shy of visiting for the mass at church. Radio barons were making money from their gullible illiterate spiritual fans in the form of huge donations.
When we talk about radio frequencies, what came to my mind are the words from Dr. Wyne Dyer, "We need to tune our mind to the frequencies of the divinity and we can hear those wonderful whispers of the divinity that sets the rules of right-living for the entire universe". We need to become like a radio and fine tune our minds to receive those radio frequencies.
I remember the Ham Radio that people used to have and still have and connect with people all over the world.
Do you know where that name "HAM" came from?
The letter H comes from Heinrich Hertz. The letter A comes from Edwin Armstrong. While the letter M comes from Gugleimo Marconi. According to the findings of our research, HeinrichHertz was the first man to develop the theory of electromagnetic waves.
Edwin Armstrong, on the other hand, was the first to
successfully invent frequency modulation FM, while Gugleimo
Marconi was the first to successfully transmit signals across Atlantic.
We need to add Dr. Wayne Dyer to that list for invention
how the spiritual people can connect themselves to the
frequencies of the divinity.
Vathsala Jayaraman
H
Collage in December : Quotes
https://routinelynomadic.com/december-quotes-captions-sayings/
Comments